


Eater Ever After

by Zaydie



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: AU, Kidnapping, Twin dimensions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-08
Updated: 2015-05-28
Packaged: 2018-02-24 14:39:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 29
Words: 76,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2584982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zaydie/pseuds/Zaydie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a big shock to find out that Soul Eater, the anime/manga, really does exist. It's an even bigger shock to find out that Nik, Kat and Mike are weapons. Just when their world couldn't be shaken up more, a witch is added to the picture and all hell breaks loose.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue and First Chapter

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so those of you who are paranoid that you'll get hooked onto a series that gets forgotten before it's finished, DON'T WORRY. I was worried about that too, and so I didn't publish anything until it was done. The only reason I'm not posting it all at once is that the chapters are really long, and for some reason long reads often don't get read as much. I'm hoping that someone will comment how they enjoy the first chapter or two so that I have some feedback. Thanks for reading this, hope you enjoy.

## Prologue

“He doesn’t look a thing like Jesus, but he talks like a gentleman, like you remember when you… were young,” Nik sung, closing her blue eyes in passion for the song. Beside her, her best friend Kurtis slammed the drumsticks on the coloured pads before him. On her other side, the clicking of the guitar buttons could be heard underneath her other friends’ fingers.  
“I said he doesn’t look a thing like Jesus,” she continued. “He doesn’t look a thing like Jesus… But more than you’ll ever know…” With a final breath, the song ended. “Alright!” she beamed, and high fived Kat, who had been playing Bass mode. Meanwhile, Bill, who had been on Guitar mode, flexed his fingers.  
“I’m kind of getting bored of Rock Band,” Kat admitted, brushing a cropped lock of brown hair behind her ear. It immediately flipped back, too short to stay in place.  
“We could go for a walk,” Kurtis suggested, standing from the drummer’s stool. He reached for a sweater and pulled it on, pulling his dark curls out from under the fabric.  
“Sure, let’s go to the beach,” Nik agreed, rushing to the door. The wind rushed in as she opened the door, and her blonde hair blew behind her.  
“Agh, it’s freezing out here,” Kat complained, as she was the only one without a sweater. Nik gave her a worried glance before shrugging off her own sweater, and offering it.  
“I’m not cold,” she insisted, smiling freely. Before Kat had the chance to take the sweater, a strange light illuminated behind Nik, sending a quizzical expression to her hazel eyes. Nik raised an eyebrow and turned. The light was coming from just over the hill.  
As the group stepped closer to investigate, they noticed a blue grid made of light, seemingly scanning the landscape. It just barely didn’t reach them, stopping at the gravel of the drive.  
“What… is that?” Nik whispered, but nobody answered. Kat was the first to step forward, but as she did, her foot began glowing a dull but fiery red. She immediately stepped back.  
“Maybe it’s an alien trap thing,” Bill joked, but other than his brother Kurtis, everyone was too nervous to chuckle. Kat regained her nerve and this time she didn’t step back, not even when her whole leg began glowing.  
“I don’t feel different at all,” she claimed, turning back. She stepped completely in and every inch of her glowed red. “It’s pretty cool. Come on in!”  
“I don’t know,” Nik began, but Kurtis had already decided to give it a shot and poked his finger in. As with Kat, it began glowing, but this time it was a strong and deep forest green. He raised his eyebrows at the rest of the group, but shrugged and walked in.  
“She’s right,” he grinned, and looked behind him. Even his eyes were green, instead of their usual dark brown.  
“Well, might as well all go in,” Nik sighed, but she was beginning to get excited. She looked at Bill, who was gingerly poking his shoe in. On and off it glowed a somber navy blue, slightly brighter than the sky above them. Finally he went completely in and Nik gained her nerve to try as well.  
Putting her best foot forward, she watched as her foot, then her leg, and her whole torso turned a neon lime green.  
“S-Snick?” Kat asked, using her pet name. Nik looked up to see all her friends giving her wary looks.  
“What?” she asked, looking down to see what was wrong. She saw the problem immediately, right as her friends began to fall, and the light began to fade. She looked up, having heard some rustles in the trees, and she almost forgot about it when she saw her friends on the ground. If she had time, she might have looked back to her arm again, but her own mind was beginning to shut down, and she fell in a heap on the ground.  
Her arm slashed the earth as she fell.

## Chapter One

### Nik

Darkness… was there anything before that? Yeah, there was, I recalled it suddenly. I had... a blade for an arm. That was messed up. I opened my eyes. There was a blue grid… I saw… but no, that must have been a hallucination. My eyes widened as I looked around. I sat up suddenly.  
“Oh, you’re up,” Stein… yes, Stein, was sitting at a desk in front of me. Obviously facing away, but he must have heard me sitting up.  
“What the… why is… why is everything…” I rubbed my eyes. Surely I was dreaming.  
“Which one are you again? Katherine or Nicole?”  
“Uhm, Nicole,” I replied. “Why is everything … animated?” The bed, the desk, the chair. They all had clear stroke lines.  
“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. It’s only natural that it feels strange, coming from an unanimated world.” Just then, the door opened and Kid came in. Yeah. Death. The. Kid. I tried not to make any fan-girl squeals or anything, but my eyes definitely widened, and I’m sure I came close to fainting. Luckily I didn’t… I’m not really a fainting person, anyway. He glanced my way.  
“Glad to see you’re awake,” he smiled. He looked over at Stein. “Is she one of the three weapons?”  
“Yeah, Nicole,” he said automatically. My stomach growled. What an awful time for it to growl!  
“Would you like some food?” he asked in response to the growling. It finally stopped. I swear I started blushing.  
“Yes, please,” I managed not to stutter. How was this real? No, it couldn’t be real. Death the Kid was –is- a fictitious character. I got out of the bed, suddenly noticing I was in white hospital clothes. Except animated. This would take some getting used to. As we walked to the cafeteria, I stared at my hands. They, too, were outlined with strokes. “Uh, so do I call you Kid, or do I have to say your full name?” I asked, as though he wasn’t my all-time favourite anime character.  
“How do you…” He stopped walking. “How do you know my name?” he asked.  
“Uh, I know a lot more than your name,” I almost laughed. He had no idea that he was… a character. A make believe person.  
“Like?” he prodded, beginning to walk again. Slowly, this time.  
“Well… you’re completely obsessed with symmetry… Friends with Maka, Soul, Black*Star and Tsubaki. Of course, also with your weapons Liz and Patty,” I began.  
“How do you know these things?”  
“Well, I watched Soul Eater back when I lived in the unanimated world. Simple as that.” We arrived at the cafeteria and I picked out a cereal to eat. I could explore the strange foods of the cafeteria later. I started eating.  
“That’s Soul’s nickname. Are you telling me that the humans from your world have learned how to make contact with us?”  
“Hah. Yeah right. In _my_ world, you’re fake. Made up. Don’t exist. I’m having a hard time believing this isn’t a dream now. Soul Eater is just what the anime is called.”  
“Ah, so Stein’s experiment worked. That explains why you aren’t freaking out about what happened with your arm earlier.”  
“S-Stein’s experiment?!” my hand froze, spilling some milk from my spoon back into the bowl. It was weird, holding a spoon with a clear outline. My mind went back to the words 'Stein's experiment.'  
“He said he was going to make it so weapons from the unanimated world wouldn’t freak out as much. I didn’t ask him to elaborate.”  
“I… I see,” I felt uneasy about unknowingly being a part of Stein’s experiments. This was Stein we were talking about. I leaned back and looked at my arms, just in case.  
“Don’t worry, I warned him not to do anything I wouldn’t approve of,” Kid soon reassured me, after realizing what I was doing, of course.  
“Right…” I went back to eating, still slightly unnerved. “So, why are we here anyway?” I sort of suspected the reason already, but I needed to hear it.  
“As you probably already know,” he began. “You’re a weapon. This is a school that teaches meisters and weapons. In your world, the weapon inside you would have grown like a disease. You wouldn’t want to transform completely. This next part is a bit complicated, but in basic terms, the weapon would gradually _become_ a disease, from you not using it. Normally this wouldn’t happen, but it’s different here than it is there. Eventually, you would die. Likely before they knew what was wrong with you. And if you managed to transform completely, it wouldn't even take that long. It would be a spontaneous death.”  
“P-pleasant,” I stuttered. "But if I naturally can't exist as a weapon in my world, then why _am_ I a weapon in the first place?"  
"It's... a long story. I'll explain it all when we gather the other weapons. As well, we need to send the other two back. We really should fine-tune the dimension device to only bring weapons."  
"Wait, you're sending the others home?" These were my best friends. I'd known them for years. No way was I staying here while they went back to their old lives. "Can't they stay?"  
"Well, you could talk to my father about it," Kid suggested. That made me sit up straighter. For some reason I'd assumed the manga was the real story, but I guess I was wrong. He sensed something. "What's wrong?"  
"Nothing... I just assumed the wrong storyline."  
"What do you mean?" I realized he probably didn't know the manga was separate from the anime.  
"Well there's more than one storyline to follow. One for the manga, and one for the anime. I assumed that this was the manga, since the anime seemed... like a shortened version of the manga."  
"What happened in the manga?"  
"Well, there was this big battle on the moon to defeat the kishin, and afterwards the moon was all dark. Witches became allies with Shibusen. You connected the three lines of sanzu during the battle, and since you became the new death god, your father kind of... well, died." I felt awkward telling him that.  
"I see. And the anime is what really happened."  
"Yeah... But it was such a weird ending. You know, with the kishin stuff."  
"I'm sorry?" I couldn't believe he didn't know what I was talking about. Like, hello? Your dad made the entire city walk over to the enemy's base and you don't call that weird?  
"Y'know... the whole city-growing-legs thing?"  
"What are you talking about?" he furrowed his eyes.  
"Uh... you know what, never mind. I guess they changed the ending. So what really happened?"  
"Well, just about everything you said happened in the manga, other than the moon being black and witches becoming allies with Shibusen. As well as my father's death." I finished my cereal and gave my bowl back. "So," he was obviously about to change the subject. I guess finding out that certain newcomers were always going to think his father was dead was an uncomfortable topic. "What kind of weapon are you?"  
"I don't really know. I'll try now," I decided, once we were in the hall. I imagined Sid's advice, something about a blade in my dormant soul... When I looked up, nothing happened. "Uh... I guess Sid's advice didn't work," I chuckled nervously. "What was the advice?" he raised an eyebrow. I guess Sid's advice usually works.  
"Something about imagining the blade lying dormant within your soul..." "In that case, you must not be a blade weapon."  
"But that's impossible. My entire _arm_ was a blade back in my... other world." I was never getting used to this. "How could I not be a blade weapon?"  
"Perhaps the blade is an added feature to your main part." We reached the death room. He opened the door.  
"Hello Kid!" his father called in his usual comical manner. "I see you brought one of the new weapons! Let's see," I could feel him looking at my soul. It was really weird. I kind of felt uncomfortable. I was still trying to convince myself this wasn't a dream. I was failing at that part. "Hmm, very honest, kind, loyal. Yup, she's a good one!" That was a good sign. Maybe I could convince him not to send my friends back.  
"On an unrelated note," I started to say. Kid beat me to it.  
"She would like for us to have her friends stay as Meisters, instead of sending them back."  
"Oh, sure!" I hadn't expected this, but I guess most people would be sent over while hanging out with their best friends... Suddenly off to the right, an unnoticed man stood up.  
"I'll go get'em," he said, leaving. It was Maka's dad. A death scythe. That's what my goal was, now, wasn't it? To find a meister and to become a death scythe? Since the witches didn't turn out to be allies, at least. It would probably be hard, unless I got an awesome meister. Maybe Bill or Kurtis, they would need weapons if they weren’t weapons themselves. But they weren't really used to fighting much, except for fencing, and I guess they shot BB guns. If I really _wasn't_ a bladed weapon, would they really be able to use me that easily? There was no way I was a gun, either. Or... well, I couldn't really think of anything I could be. A weapon with a blade, but which has a separate main purpose. What could I possibly be? I figured we had a while before the guys came, so I decided to try to transform. I closed my eyes, but opened them when the door suddenly opened.  
"Heya Snick!" Kat waltzed in. She looked kind of weird. Animated. Drawn. It wasn't so bad cause she used to draw both of us anyway. The style was just different. Hard to get used to, and it had only been about an hour in this world. How would I survive the rest of my life? Would I be here the rest of my life? No way, it was just a dream. Right?  
"Kat!" I ran over and high fived her. "Where you been, girl?"  
"Sleeping, where else?"  
"So did they tell you if you're a weapon?"  
"Yeah, I am! I'm so excited! Except I don't really know what I am. Hey, wanna try transforming now?"  
"I was about to try when you walked in anyway," I laughed. "Hey Kid, can you grab us if we actually manage to transform?" I didn't know how often those floors were cleaned, but I know at least 4 people had walked on them in the past little while.  
"Okay," he said in a low voice. I could tell he was hoping we'd end up being symmetrical if we transformed. We closed our eyes. I don't know what Kat did, but when I opened my eyes Kid was holding a bow with both hands. It was beige with these weird green leaf patterns on it. Maybe they looked weird cause they were animated. But no, weapons were naturally from this world to begin with. They'd look weirder _un_ animated.  
"A bow? Where're the arrows?" I asked.  
"The arrows would be much like the bullets fired from Liz and Patty. However, I'm not partners with Kat, so I won't try firing her." Kat transformed back to human.  
"How come you couldn't transform, Snick?" I looked down.  
"I dunno. I don't even know what I am, cause Kid says I'm not a bladed weapon, mainly. I guess my problem is that I keep picturing a scythe or something."  
"Try picturing just your soul. I didn't know I was a bow. I just kind of imagined the feeling it might feel like to be battling for something that was good. Like Sid said, fight for what you believe is right!" That didn't really sound like Kat. But then again, I usually don't need help from Kat. I closed my eyes and tried it. Fighting for what was right... Suddenly I opened my eyes. Why was I levitating?! Ahh!! Everything was green!! Fwoosh! Suddenly I felt Kid holding me. "Aw, no fair," I heard Kat say. Wait, no, I could see her, too. It was weird. I could see from any point of the weapon that I felt I wanted to, like any part was whatever I wanted it to be. And right now I was a blade-edged bow. My soul power radiated from tip to tip, creating a string made of pure energy.  
"Interesting..." Kid said. I looked up at him.  
"What is it?"  
"It appears the bow divides neatly in half." I could tell he was pleased by the symmetry. "Would you like me to try separating you?"  
"Uhh, sure," I wasn't completely sure, but I figured I would find out eventually anyway. Suddenly it felt like my soul was split in two. Not painfully. But I could feel that the only thing connecting both halves of my soul was Kid's soul.  
"Twin daggers," I heard the glee in his voice. Dude, I thought to myself. No way you can be his weapon. He's already got Liz and Patty. There was a small silence. He put my halves back together as my brother entered the room. I transformed to human.  
"Mike!! Bro!" I quickly hugged him. "You're the third weapon??" He also looked strange animated. But then, to me, everything looked strange. I'd grown up where animated things were fake! You couldn't really blame me.  
"Yep," he smiled, returning the hug. We separated as once again the door opened. This time, Spirit, Bill and Kurtis entered. Only Spirit looked normal. To me, at least. Stupid mindset, I thought. Still. These were my best friends.  
"Hey guys!" I grinned widely. "Turns out you won't be leaving after all." They smiled in response.


	2. Chapter 2

### Kurtis

I woke up in a strange bed, with a memory of possibly the strangest dream I ever had. My vision, still blurry from last night's rest, slowly started to focus on my unfamiliar surroundings. I began to recall last night's dream, something about Kat glowing red, and Nik’s arm being a blade, and - something wasn't right. This wasn't a place I'd been before, but at the same time it looked oddly familiar. It was like I was in a cartoon, everything looked outlined, and the colours stood out. This couldn't be a dream, could it? It seemed too real to be a dream. I sat up suddenly, eyes darting around the room, taking in everything. I noticed Bill lying in a bed across from mine, but he looked all wrong. This was anime-Bill I was seeing in front of me.  
"Bill," I hissed, and he stirred in his sleep. His face looked strange, like my brother had been converted to a cartoon. It suddenly hit me that I probably looked the same, and looking down at my hands, I realized this was the case.  
"Bill!" I said, this time much louder. I saw his eyes open this time. This had to be a dream, because I never wake up earlier than him - yet at the same time, I knew it couldn't be.  
"What's going on? Kurtis?" he asked, just as confused as I.  
"I have no idea. Let's get up and investigate though," I offered.  
We explored the room, and aside from everything looking as though it'd been drawn in, it appeared to be a regular hospital room. I noticed a hastily scrawled note taped to the door, and we went to investigate.  
"It says," I began reading aloud, "Dear children... Hey! We're not children!"  
"Keep reading." Bill pressed. Normally, he'd have made a joke by now. I guess he was either grumpy from waking up early, or more interested in what's going on than making jokes.  
"Ahem." I read on, "Dear children, it appears that due to a small mistake on our part, you were wrongly taken from your dimension. Whoopsies! No worries though, we will provide you with adequate housing and food until the next drop off date. Please, keep inside your room, somebody will be over shortly to answer any questions you have. Toodles! Signed, Death." I froze. That was Death's curly signature from Soul Eater, I knew it. I guess that also explained the 'dream' I had too.  
"We got kidnapped by an evil clown named Death?" Bill asked. I guess he wouldn't recognize Death, having never watched Soul Eater. I didn't answer him, still in shock. We must've somehow entered the Soul Eater world! But... How? And weren't Nik and Kat with us when we got picked up? What happened to them? Maybe they have their own room, a Girls Dorm or something. Who knew. I decided to explain what I thought was happening to Bill.  
"So we're in a show?" he asked after I’d explained everything I could about Soul Eater.  
"I don't know. Maybe? This part wasn't in the show." I answered. We'd been talking about this for some time now, each with our own theory on what's going on. Suddenly, we were interrupted by three quick raps on the door.  
"Come in!" I yelled, and the door swung open. Spirit stood in the doorway, attempting to look professional.  
"Lord Death requests your attendance at once," he said. "Follow me."  
He led us down a long hallway, we took a few winding turns through Shibusen, and finally arrived at the Death Room. Spirit remained quiet this whole time, probably afraid that he'd say something foolish if he spoke. It was a bit weird to see him acting like this, instead of how he acts around Maka.  
In the Death Room stood Kat, Nik, and her brother, Mike, along with Death and his son.  
"Hey guys! Turns out you won't be leaving after all." Nik said excitedly, and we smiled in spite of everything.  
"So what exactly is going on?" I asked, still confused about everything.  
"Now that you're all here, we can begin. First off, are you familiar with Soul Eater? And you know what weapons and meisters are?" Death asked us, cocking his head slightly.  
"Yeah, of course," everyone answered. I guess Bill knew enough from my explanation.  
"Good. That saves us lots of time," he said cheerily, moving in closer to us.  
"So, as you know, 800 years ago, demon weapons were created, and shortly after the kishin Asura was trapped under Shibusen,” he continued. "Back then, our worlds were one."  
"What?" Nik asked.  
"You see," he explained, "While I began to hunt down Asura myself, a group of powerful sorcerers banded together to rid the world of him by another means."  
"Trippy," Kat grinned. "But how?"  
"Well, ironically enough, they were a group of sorcerers against the use of magic. They kept low-profile, for the most part, but when Asura became a kishin, they got desperate, and cast a magic-purging spell. They intended to remove all magic from the earth, but instead ended up accidentally creating an exact copy of the dimension! In that copy, however, magic refused to work."  
"Let me throw out a _totally_ un-educational guess here, that was our dimension?" Bill asked sarcastically.  
"Indeed! But even though magic doesn't work, some bloodlines still had weapons deep inside their souls. They passed this down through generations, and now, some people are born weapons in your world. Ever since the kishin was defeated, people in your world are beginning to be able to transform! They're occasionally killed in the process, though."  
"I repeat," Nik said, turning to Kid. "Pleasant."  
"Luckily," he went on, "Stein invented a device that lets us detect transformations in your world. Most of the time, we can grab weapons and bring them here before they hurt themselves too badly. That's why we grabbed you. The three of you are weapons."  
"But there's five of us!" I protested. I think I knew where he was going with this.  
"Dude, you and Bill aren't weapons," Nik spoke for him.  
"What?" I asked, disappointed.  
"That's right! You and your brother were brought here by accident. We haven't perfected the device yet. We were going to send you back home, but your friend Nik insisted you become meisters instead. Isn't that wonderful!"  
Kat elbowed me in the ribs, and whispered in my ear, "Do you realize we're _literally_ at Death's doorstep?" I mentally face-palmed.  
"You do realize that no one’s talking, and we can hear your whispering?" Nik whispered.  
"What about our families?" I asked, ignoring them. "What will they think of us mysteriously disappearing?"  
"Don't worry, we'll tell your families what's going on. And you can keep in contact with them through letters. The rest of the world will think you're off to a boarding school. Anyways, you really should get going, or you'll be late for class!"  
"Class?!" We all groaned.  
"Yep. Your class is starting in 5 minutes so I suggest you get going! Wouldn't want to be late on your first day!"  
"Wait, don't we need textbooks, or a map of the school, or something?" Nik asked worriedly.  
"Oh man, Snik asking for a textbook? It must be the end of the world," Kat laughed.  
"Shuddup, I'm just trying to be prepared! Speaking of which... Oh man I don’t have my survival kit!" Nik noticed, anxiously searching her waist.  
"Sorry, only biological things can be transferred. Your clothes and belongings were left in a sort of 'inter-dimensional vault,'" Death the Kid explained. "In fact, you might want to get dressed before you go off to your classes. I can't imagine the teasing you would receive if you attended your first class in hospital gowns."  
I looked down and realized, through all the excitement, I didn’t notice I was in a hospital gown the whole time.  
"I guess I'll have to tell your teacher you're going to be late. You're excused today, but don't make a habit out of it! Spirit, you guide the boys to their change room, I'll contact Marie and she'll show the girls to theirs. Have fun in class!" Death exclaimed.  
"This way," Spirit said, turning and walking out of the Death Room. Bill, Mike and I followed him back to the dorms, where we stopped at a door.  
"In here. There's tons of different outfits to try on, take your time choosing because it will most likely be what you end up wearing for most of your time here."  
Inside, there were tons of outfits on clothes hangers, organized neatly. The rack was labelled "Pre-Used Outfits." I figured these were probably outfits from graduates of Shibusen, or maybe long forgotten clothes from the lost and found. Either way, I hoped they were washed first.  
I skimmed through a few cool looking outfits, stopping a few times to see how they looked. Finally, after trying on a few outfits, I settled on a plain looking suit with an open front, and a white undershirt. It was nothing too flashy, so it suited me I guess. Bill picked out a darker suit with dress pants and a Death Skull shirt. Mike came out wearing an orange shirt, a plaid blue shirt on top of that with blue jeans, and a lab coat over top of everything.  
"Hurry up in there!" we heard Kat yelling from the hallway. And I thought _girls_ were supposed to take more time dressing...  
"Yeah yeah, we're coming!" Bill yelled back. We stepped out into the hallway, where Nik and Kat were waiting [im]patiently next to Marie and Spirit. Kat was wearing a pair of pants that was black on one leg and white on the other. She had a white shirt with a lab coat overtop and a blue facemask that covered her eyes like glasses.  
"Kat... you know you can't switch this uniform for a whole year, right?" I asked her.  
"Of course, that’s the best part!" she replied. Nik stood beside her, hip cocked to one side. She had camo cargo pants on, hitched up only on the right side. She also had sandals, and a lime green tank top which showed her belly.  
"Now," Spirit interrupted. "Time to get you all to class. Since you're all new to school, you'll be put into the NOT cla-"  
"Wait, wait, wait, can't we take some kind of placement test first?" Nik demanded.  
"I guess we can test you, but don't expect to get into the EAT class so easily. It's an advanced class for gifted students only," Spirit explained.  
"Just try your best, I'm sure you'll be able to do it!" Marie added cheerfully.  
So it was back to the Death Room for us to take our tests.  
"So, are we allowed a quick cram study before the test?" Nik asked.  
"Sorry, but no. This test is supposed to test your current knowledge of Shibusen. Studying defeats the purpose of that," Spirit responded, diminishing our hopes.  
We arrived back at the Death Room, where Death the Kid had neatly arranged 5 desks. He was just finishing adjusting the last desk when we were ready to sit down and take the test.  
"There," he muttered to himself. "Perfectly symmetrical."  
As we walked to our seats, I noticed Kid shoot looks of disapproval towards Nik and Kat, presumably upset at their choice of apparel. He stopped Nik as she was about to take her seat.  
"Heh?" she asked him. Without a word, he hitched up the other side of her pants. He examined her for a minute, then, seemingly satisfied, allowed the blushing girl to sit.  
Death had placed himself in front of the 5 desks. "Alright, since you're a bit tight on time, you'll only have 45 minutes to complete the test. This will be testing all of your knowledge on subjects taught at Shibusen, plus some general knowledge. I know it's not a lot of time for such an important placement test, but you'll have to try your best. Good luck!"  
We began taking the test right away. As I grabbed the pencil to write my name, the lead fell out, probably due to Kid's over sharpening of the pencil. "Great," I thought to myself, "a distraction from what might be the most important test of my life." After getting a new pencil, I sat myself down again and began writing.  
Writing the first question was taking me a lot of time. _What forms of madness did the 8 great old ones represent?_ I knew this. Asura-of course-was fear. The rest? I needed some time to think. What was Asura's weapon's name again? It started with a V... didn’t it?  
"How much time has passed?" I decided to ask finally, to get an idea of how I was managing my time.  
"12 minutes have passed already." Death answered. He brought out a clock for further use.  
"12 minutes. I still have plenty of time. Either way, I should probably move on to the next question, I don't think I know this one," I thought to myself.  
 _The only transformative weapon that cannot absorb souls is ___._ Great. Another question I wasn't sure of. I guess I started daydreaming or something, cause next thing I knew Nik had already handed her test in and I was still on question 2. I peeked ahead to the last page, and noted there were 40 questions total.  
"Oh well," I reasoned. "I've still got 22 more minutes. Onto the next question."  
I got the next few questions fairly easily, before I was interrupted by Death. "Alright, hand in your tests now, it's time for the physical half of your test!" Oh no. I was only on question 9, and I already skipped the first two. I'd be lucky if I made it into the NOT class at this rate.  
"Wait, wasn't the test supposed to be 45 minutes?!" Mike asked.  
"The test is divided into 2 sections, the written half and the physical half. If you're going to be out in the field, you have to be in shape!" Death answered.  
The physical half of the test went better than the written half, at least. Well, for me anyways. I'm a decent runner, and I think I passed everywhere else. The others were having some trouble in different areas, but I figured we could work on that. Anyways, they were going to be comfortably sitting in weapon form during battles, while Bill and I would be doing all of the work.  
Nik laid on the ground, panting. I was pretty tired too, but I tried not to show it. "Alright, you can go eat lunch now while I grade you all. Be back in 30 minutes for your final scores!" Death exclaimed, cheery as always. Spirit handed us all some money for lunch before we left.  
"Oh man that bonus question was funny." Nik laughed as we made our way to the cafeteria.  
"Yeah... bonus question... so funny," I answered, not wanting to admit that I didn't finish the test.  
"What did you write for the bonus question, Kurtis?" she asked me. Uh oh.  
"Er. Well... it's a matter of opinion, really. I mean, different people might have, um, different views on the subject!" I answered back, trying to stay vague.  
"And your view was..?" Nik pressed.  
"Uh... well I strongly agree. Er... yes!"  
"Right. I bet you got it wrong," Nik chuckled.  
"What was the bonus question anyways?" Mike wondered out loud.  
"It was literally 'Is this a trick question?'" she answered.  
"Well what did you get on it Nik?" I asked.  
"Well I figure, it's a bonus question, so you get a bonus mark if you get it right, but if it’s a trick question you don't really get marks, so it can’t be! So I chose no."  
"Hm. Fair enough," I replied, relieved my answer made sense.  
"Wait a second, how can you strongly agree to that type of question?" Bill asked me as we arrived in the cafeteria. What was this, 20 questions?  
"So how does everyone think they did on the tests?" I asked, trying to change the subject.  
"I already know how I did." Kat grinned.  
"Don't try to change the... wait how do you know that, Kat?" Nik asked suddenly. Operation: subject change was a success.  
Kat motioned us to lean in, and whispered, "I used outside sources."  
"You cheated!?" we asked her in shock.  
"Shush!" she replied, picking out her food.  
"How did you do that, we didn’t even know we were taking the test until 5 minutes before!" Nik exclaimed.  
"I have my ways," Kat answered vaguely.  
We found a table and ate in silence. Finally, Nik spoke up.  
"So I guess we gotta choose meister and weapon partners now, huh?" she asked, swallowing a mouthful of taco.  
"I kind of assumed we would get paired up with each other," I admitted.  
"But there's 3 of us. And while a meister can wield 2 weapons, both Snickers and I are double handed weapons," Kat pointed out.  
"What weapons are you two anyways?" Mike asked them.  
"Bows," Kat answered.  
"We're both bows, but obviously, I'm the cooler one. I can split in two!" Nik laughed.  
"Something that Kid was very happy about," Kat teased.  
"Sh-shut up!" Nik retorted. Her face turned slightly pink. Bill raised his eyebrows at this strange behaviour. "In any case, until we find a third meister, I just won't be wielded by anyone. I couldn't stand it if one of us were left out."  
"Good point," Kat agreed. Mike nodded too.  
"Fair enough," I reasoned. "Until we all decide on our partners, we all wait for each other then."  
"And look!" Bill exclaimed suddenly with a mouth full of spaghetti. "It's been 30 minutes already, we should get back and see how we did!"  
I scarfed down the last of my ham sandwich and we rushed back to class. I could feel the nervousness from everyone (except Kat) as we tried to find our way back.  
"No, Bill, we go straight here, not right!"  
"Wait, wasn't it this way?"  
"Kat, going backwards is definitely the wrong way!"  
Thankfully, we bumped into Spirit on our way back, and he was able to show us how to get back to the Death Room. It looked like it would take some time to get used to this school, with all the hallways being like mazes. We finally got into the Death Room, where our sheets were ready and graded.  
"I got into the EAT class!" I heard Nik yell excitedly.  
"Me too!" Kat said, trying to act surprised.  
"I think I did too," Bill said, not sure exactly what the EAT class was still.  
I looked at my mark sheet. I did better than I thought on the physical section, a 90%. Higher than I expected actually. It seemed like being in this dimension heightened my reaction times, and made me a lot stronger and more fit feeling. The written half, on the other hand, I managed to get a 16% on. And to top it off, I got put into the NOT class. Looks like I would be there all alone.  
"Shoot, I didn't make it," Mike said. Well, at least I wasn't alone in the NOT class.


	3. Chapter 3

### Nik

"Kurtis... did... did you not make it?" I was really happy that I'd passed, but Mike hadn't and.... it looked like Kurtis hadn't either. He tried to laugh it off, but I could tell he was sad.  
"Guess I got the bonus question wrong..."  
"Not to shoo you away, but you know your classes start in about 30 seconds?" Death said joyfully.  
"What?! You couldn't have told us this earlier?!" I darted out the door, the rest of them behind me. "Craaaaaaap, which way do I go?!" I saw a flash of blue suddenly, and on instinct followed it. Yes! Black*Star was late again! I ran around the corner and caught up, barely. Who the heck walks that fast?!  
"Hey, you're a new student aren't you?" he suddenly noticed me, out of breath and trying to keep pace. I heard Kat behind me, but evidently she was content with not talking to 'the great Black*Star.' Bill was walking next to her. Or behind her, I couldn't hear.  
"Uh, yeah," I said. He wasn't slowing down... at this rate I would be all sweaty and stinky for my first class!  
"I'll bet you want an autograph!"  
"Really, all I want is to know where the class is." I panted. He put his autograph back to... wherever it came from.  
"NOT classes are down that way, then turn left at the end." He pointed to a corridor that we were passing and I heard the unnoticed footsteps of Kurtis and Mike leave down the corridor.  
"No, I mean to the EAT class." God, were we ever going to get there? I made a mental note to exercise more later; I hadn't even tackled the stairs out front, since I woke up in the school. Maybe that could be my training...  
"Oh, a new student in the EAT class?"  
"Three, actually," I nodded my head behind me, and decided I would start carrying a water bottle around. Once I got a water bottle. Or anything. I had absolutely nothing but the clothes I was wearing, I realized. And even these were borrowed. I think. Black*Star looked behind me. I suddenly caught sight of the sign above the door, Crescent Moon Class. Finally. We stepped in and Stein motioned for Black*Star to take his seat. I guess Death was joking when he said class started in 30 seconds, because not that many people were there.  
"Ah, so you passed the tests. Wonderful." Stein grinned, but I wasn't sure if it was genuine or... creepy. I shivered. I should have remembered Stein was the teacher. I would have been okay with the NOT class. But... now all that was in front of me was gonna be frogs and whatever else Stein decided we should dissect. Dangit. I don't like dissection, not really. I went to the desks and took a seat relatively high up. Other students filtered in, Kat and Bill sat beside me. Once it seemed like we were going to begin, he spoke again. "Before we begin, we've got 3 new students today. They won't be seriously graded until January, but treat them as equals nonetheless." Just then, all eyes were on us. I noticed only one- no, two, people were moving out of... now that I looked, it was a pretty big class. Down two levels and to my left, one boy caught my eye. He was kind of jittery, but the girl beside him seemed to be calming him down. He kind of weirded me out. Since he sat on the end, I noticed he wore camo pants too. Well. There went my originality. Finally the students looked back to the front as Stein started talking again. I tried to listen, I really did, but Kat elbowed me suddenly.  
"Check out who's in front of us," she whispered in my ear. I tried to ignore her and focus on the fact that they were handing out frogs now, but curiosity got the better of me, and besides, we had to look forward anyway. My eyes lowered slightly. I wasn't sure why I should be able to recognize someone from the back of their head, but... the stripes kind of made it easy. I face palmed.  
"Not in class," I told her. The frogs came. What were we searching for? Oh, what the frog ate for dinner that day. Lovely. I put on the gloves. Oh boy. I told myself to pull it together, and I used the scalpel as directed on the board. I shut down the mental part of my mind that was... well, I just ignored what it was saying and... dissected the frog.  
Don't get me wrong, I've dissected stuff before. Just never a full animal. It was always an owl pellet or a sheep eye or something. I just, I don't like thinking of how, this this was alive once, you know, as I'm basically digging in its insides. We grow up being taught that it's kind of wrong to dig in a dead being's innards. And then they have us do just that with certain animals. It's really confusing in my mind, what's right and wrong and all that stuff. I was still having trouble getting over the fact that it was animated, too. In any case, the dissection was over eventually, much to my relief. Actually, I would have been worried if it didn't end. Basically, the class ended.  
I was a little confused, weren't we supposed to write like, a lab report or something? On what we learned? Although I was kind of grateful we didn't. All I learned was what colours- you know what, I just won't say anything more. I was just grateful it had ended. Kat didn't seem very disturbed, and neither did Bill, really.  
I tried to think happy thoughts. I'm a super cool weapon. I'm in an animated world. I was kind of being forced to be independent. Or wait, does it count if you rely on an allowance? Probably not. And I still had to find a third meister, and climb those steps, and... those weren't very happy thoughts.  
"So, it looks like we chose a good spot to sit, huh Snick?" Kat poked me. I giggled, cause I'm ticklish. I poked her back.  
"Yep. But you know, it kind of sucks. Two things, actually."  
"What?" she asked. I felt kind of awkward saying stuff about Kid with Bill around, so I addressed the first one.  
"One, I think I would have been fine in the NOT class. Dissection for the rest of my school life is just... Scary."  
"Uhh, do you know where the bathrooms are?" Bill asked a random passerby. After getting directions, he left.  
"Hope he can find his way back," I muttered.  
"So, what was the second thing?" Kat continued.  
"Having a crush on my favourite anime slash manga character just went from totally okay to very, very bad."  
"Snick, you're focusing on the wrong stuff! What we need to worry about is not the fact that you _have_ a crush, but how to get him to notice you! I mean, he is Death's son and all."  
"Not so loud!" I couldn't believe she was doing this. Hello? No way he'd go for me. Wait, no way I should even have this crush! Kat was getting it all backwards! "I'm perfectly fine with not getting his attention, thank you very much. He has other things to worry about."  
"Like whether or not he folded his toilet paper," Kat laughed. We were about to start down the steps, after finally finding the front of the school, when a girl with black hair approached us.  
"Hi, my name's Sasha," she introduced herself. "I heard you were new, and I'm actually new, too, and don't have any friends or anything, but if you need someone to show you around, like where the dorms and stuff are, maybe we could walk to and from school together?" Eager to make a friend with someone who knew the layout of this place, I grinned.  
"That'd be great! My name's Nik. This is Kat." Looking over, I noticed Kat looked kind of spaced out. She was back to normal in a flash, though.  
"So where's the cafeteria from here?" Oh yeah. Dinner. Was it that late already? Sasha began leading us down some corridors. My mind wandered. I sort of missed home, but I was at the age where I was gonna be moving out soon, anyway, so it wasn’t so bad.  
But yeah, it was.  
No. No it wasn't. Was that even me thinking there? Weird.  
We arrived in the cafeteria, and I chose out perogies. They reminded me of the guys. Where were they? I hope Kurtis and Mike could find the cafeteria. And Bill, we kind of left him. Or he left us. Whatever. The perogies were pretty good, but in my mind they tasted better when I made them myself. I'd have to ask Kurtis for the recipe, maybe I could make my own when we got used to this place.  
Wait, making my own dinner? You made perogies with a frying pan or a pot of water! Was I going crazy? I'm terrified of those things! Well. Not terrified, per say, but I heavily dislike using hot things in a kitchen. I'll stick with sandwiches. Or hey, what was so bad about the cafeteria? But no, that's just weird.  
"Snick? You in there?" Oh. Oh yeah. Kat. And Sasha, she was there, too.  
"Um, yeah?" I popped a perogy in my mouth.  
"Sasha just asked you if you wanted to have roommates in the dorm or if you want to be by yourself."  
"I... I kind of assumed we'd at least be together."  
"A five person room... hmm... I guess that could work," Sasha mumbled, twirling some kind of soup spaghetti thing on a fork.  
"Eh? But there are three of us!" There was no way I counted wrong.  
"Yeah, but I figure we should meet some other students who've been here since the beginning of the year, in case we need to know something that I don't know myself. The more the merrier, anyway!" She smiled. For some reason, it didn't look quite right. I was still probably getting used to the whole animated thing. I ate the last perogie on my plate and we returned our dishes. I mentally prepared myself for the stairs. Okay. You can do this. It's down, at least. Yeah, it'll be fine. Probably.  
We were still able to see all the way to the edge of Death City, and I was exhausted. Kat, if possible, looked worse. Surprisingly, Sasha looked absolutely fine. Owww. My head hurt. I stopped for a second. We all sat down, Sasha more to wait for us than to rest.  
"Come on, we're past the halfway point!" Sasha tried to motivate us. She put her hand on my shoulder.  
"No. Unless you have water, I am NOT getting up. Yet." She sighed and went to try to cheer Kat up. I felt an eerie shiver as her hand brushed by my ear. Somehow, don’t even bother asking how, she got us to continue. Finally we made it to the bottom. I dreaded tomorrow. She led us through a couple alleyways and streets until we reached the girl's dorm.  
"You know," she said as we stepped inside. "You did a pretty good job for your first time climbing the steps."  
"We didn't climb them, though. We were descending," I muttered. I almost didn't want to go upstairs to find out where we'd be sleeping. But I had to, and then I had to shower and... I guess I would have to borrow a pair of pyjamas and go shopping tomorrow. We didn't have class as late tomorrow, anyway. And we were supposed to be given our allowance. "Um, Sasha, I hate to ask, but do you suppose Kat and I could borrow some PJs for the night? We haven't even gotten any clothes or anything yet."  
"It's fine," she said. She talked to someone about the room situation and that she wanted to switch, too. Next thing we knew we were climbing the stairs again... but hey, this time I could have water! I grabbed a glass when they showed us the sink. I saw Kat drinking some water, too. Finally they brought us to a room. The woman showing us around opened the door and called out the girls already inside.  
"Hello Zaydie, Kate! These three girls will be occupying the remaining beds in your room from now on. I hope you all get along well!" With that, she left. Before we'd even stepped in I heard someone mutter about how they knew they couldn't get away with such a great room without company. Sasha went in first, then Kat. I stepped in last and a blonde girl sitting on the second-furthest bed gasped. I wondered if there was toilet paper on my shoe or something.  
"Kate. Chill. It's just the new freshman chick from this morning." I noticed a girl with black hair and.... were her eyes red?! No, that wasn't possible. She sat on the bed furthest from the door. As much as I didn't want to be near the blonde who seemed troubled by me, Sasha and Kat had already taken the beds near the door. I sat on the centre bed, uncomfortable. Sasha left to get her stuff from her old room.  
"So... my name's Nik," I tried to be friendly.  
"Kate," the blonde girl said stiffly. She sniffed the air... Kind of weird, in my opinion. But I was trying to be her friend, here. Normally I make friends easily... I couldn't figure out why she didn't seem to like me.  
"Eh," the other girl laid back on her bed, earbuds in. I guess neither of them wanted to talk to me.  
"Friendly," I muttered. Kat seemed to be listening to something unheard, so I merely took off my shoes and put on the pair of slippers I'd found under the bed. I explored a bit more into the room, and found an extra set of clothes in the dresser beside my bed.  
Sasha came back then, so I took one of the pairs of PJs she held out to me and left. She seemed confused, but let me be. I felt lonely. And yet, I was surrounded by friends. Wasn't I? I got into the shower room, my mind wandering as it often does. Why was Kid in class?? Didn't he, like, graduate already or something? And wasn't he an elite member of Spartoi or whatever? They were in some other class, weren't they? Or... I didn't tell him about Spartoi, maybe that's another thing that never happened. Perhaps the kishin stuff ended only just recently, and they were back to normal school now. Hmm... I thought back to what Kat said. There really wasn't any way he'd go for me... I think. Dare I hope against it? A mere 24 hours ago I was set. I had plans, to go to college, to never marry and just live with my friends for life. But now... everything had changed. I'm a weapon. A symmetrica- wait, that didn't matter. And here I thought I'd left having a crush behind. Only being attracted to drawn out people had its perks. Except when suddenly you were in a drawn out world. And Sasha, did we really find a meister that fast? It seemed too good to be true. But we hadn't even really asked, maybe she was a weapon too. And what was with that blonde girl? She looked kind of like me, almost. And her friend, Zay...Zaydah? What was her name, again? Her eyes were freaky. Maybe she wore contacts. Yeah. She had to.  
I finished up and got into the PJs. They were nice and soft... I meandered back to the bedroom, ready for an early night, so that I could wake up early. I didn't know how long it would take to climb those stairs, so I wanted an early start. Kat agreed, so I guess I would be waking her up, too.


	4. Chapter 4

### Kurtis

Mike and I managed to find our way to class, not without a little help from Black*Star of course. I was still pretty upset I'd managed to land myself in the NOT course, but at least I wasn't alone in it. I guess. I wasn't exactly the best at making new friends, so I was lucky to know at least one person. I wasn't really interested in making new friends anyways. Though I sat beside Mike, I didn't talk to him much, or even pay much attention to what the teacher was saying. From what I understood of the lesson, they were teaching weapons to properly transform and resonate properly with their meisters. I wasn't a weapon, and I didn't even have a partner yet, so it didn't really apply to me anyways. I found myself thinking of the others. How were they able to get into the advanced class? Even Bill, who wasn't familiar with this world, managed to get in. Maybe I should've cheated, like Kat did. No, that would be wrong, I got put where I belonged. How did Kat cheat anyways? She had no knowledge that there would even be a test, and suddenly she knows all the answers? It didn't add up, but I decided not to question Kat's methods. There was probably a logical answer somewhere in there.  
I wondered what their class was doing right now. Probably something really awesome, like learning to resonate perfectly and how to fight witches or something. Then they'd get a mission and go hunt for evil souls. Or maybe not, they needed partners still, didn't they. I probably wouldn't see them until tomorrow, cause I was going to be shown to my dorm after class and settle in. They'd probably want to know how my class went. I guess I'd tell them it went fine, even though I wasn't happy about where I was placed, I didn't want them feeling bad for me. Besides, it looked like tomorrow was the last day before winter vacation anyways.  
"...and tomorrow is the last day of class before winter break, so I'll give you your study books for the exam coming up in January." I managed to hear the teacher say. I guess class was done already.  
"Looks like we get another shot at getting into the EAT class!" Mike mentioned to me happily as we left the classroom.  
"Wait, how?" I asked.  
"The teacher said there was an exam in January, so maybe if we ace it we could get another chance!" he said hopefully.  
"Yeah... maybe." My hopes died down a bit. I should study for this exam, though, getting a good grade certainly wouldn't hurt my case.  
We bumped into Bill on the stairs leading down to our dorms.  
"These stairs are pretty big..." I noted. There must've been a few thousand steps to the bottom.  
"Naww, these are nothing." Bill joked, but he didn't look too happy about descending them either. Or having to climb back up tomorrow.  
"So, how was the EAT class?" Mike asked him as we made our way down.  
"Well the teacher was creepy. We got to dissect some frogs today and he looked a little too into it. I think it was a science class. Nik wasn't looking too well, and Kat kept looking at the guy in front of us, then back to Nik again. Not exactly a normal day of school."  
"I'm guessing Stein was your teacher?" I asked curiously.  
"I forgot his name..." he answered.  
"Gray hair, big screw in his head, glasses, liked dissecting things?" I asked, as if I didn't already know the answer.  
"Yeah!"  
"Yeah... sounds like him. He's... Interesting."  
We managed to take our minds off of the huge flight of stairs, for the most part, by talking about our day. We also decided to visit a local restaurant for dinner, instead of having cafeteria food. Spirit had lent us quite a bit of money for lunch, and we had enough left over to pay for our dinner too. I wanted to visit the seafood restaurant, but Bill insisted on eating spaghetti again, and he wouldn't change his mind. We ended up eating at a local spaghetti place.  
"I'd like a bowl of spaghetti, with no cheese in the sauce," I told the waiter. I wasn't lactose intolerant, but I didn't eat any dairy. It just... didn't seem right. Dairy was made for baby cows, not humans. And plus, something about the milk in this dimension gave me the willies.  
"Where are the others anyway?" I asked over dinner.  
"Dunno," he answered. "I kind of ditched them right after class."  
Just then, I noticed laughing come from outside the shop, and I turned and saw a boy with messy black hair and the same pants that Nik was wearing walk by, in a fit of laughter. Escorting him was a brown-haired girl, trying to calm him down. A really cute brown-haired girl, I might add. I saw her head turn towards the spaghetti shop and I quickly looked away, not wanting to be seen checking her out.  
"Y-you ditched them?" I asked, trying to act like nothing had happened.  
"Yeah. They started talking about boring stuff so I figured I'd meet up with you two."  
"I see."  
"Did you learn anything in that class?" Mike asked.  
"Other than the fuzzy image of what a frog looks like on the inside, not really. It's kind of hard to see without glasses," Bill pointed out. "What about you two?"  
"Uhh." I muttered.  
"They basically taught the weapons to transform better. Also, they did some resonance stuff with partners. I think if we were actually getting graded we would have had to choose partners, but we were kind of left alone for the most part," Mike explained.  
"Yeah," I butted in. "That. And anyways, I don't think this stuff is too important, we're mostly in class to get a feel for it before next semester starts."  
"Oh yeah, and we've also got an exam after the break," Mike added in. "We're hoping that if we ace it we might be put into the advanced class with you."  
"It's worth a shot, I guess," Bill said, finishing up his spaghetti. I hoped we'd be getting some variety in our dinners. After dinner, we made our way to the dorms where we were told a room was waiting. We had to stop a student for help getting there, but we eventually made it. It had already gotten dark by the time we arrived. We had a small room inside the dorms, with 3 beds and some desks to study at. Not exactly the best living quarters, but it was free.  
"I call this bed!" Bill yelled, jumping onto the bed nearest the door. I stared at him for a second, then turned to claim the furthest bed. To my disappointment, however, Mike had already claimed it and was sitting on it triumphantly. Darn, things just weren't going my way today. I hated being in the middle. I wondered when we'd get our allowance, cause right now all I had were the clothes on my back, enrolment in the easy course at Shibusen and a place to sleep at night.  
We began getting ready for bed, and turned the lights out. I found myself wondering how my family was doing now. They said we were able to send letters to our family, right? I didn't want to lose contact with them. And what of my future? We had everything all planned out, and I was just getting comfortable with our plans, when suddenly we got dragged away to another dimension? I didn't have to be here, Bill and I weren't weapons like the others. I could always ask to go back... but... no. I was just feeling homesick. This was a great opportunity for me to try something new, learn new things, and become stronger. Besides, my friends were all here, and they were the ones I was planning a future with anyways. I wondered what would become of our future now, since things had changed so much. Maybe we'd become great warriors or something. Who knows. If nothing else, our lives were about to get pretty interesting...  
I woke up early the next morning to the sound of Bill and Mike getting ready for class. For a few drowsy seconds, I had no idea where I was, but I quickly remembered everything that happened yesterday. Surprisingly enough, I wasn't tired, even though I'm used to sleeping in. I figured it was either because I had an early night last night, or because this was all new to me and I was pretty excited about it.  
"Whoa! You're actually up?!" Bill teased at me. I hoped for Bill’s sake that he was getting some glasses soon, cause he couldn't even read the board yesterday. It'd be nice if he got in at least one day of proper learning before the break.  
"Yeah yeah, I know, it's early for me," I said, rising out of bed. "Anyways, I'm gonna go hit the showers."  
"Don't hit them too hard, you might hurt them!" Bill laughed as they stepped out. I had to chuckle at his joke.  
I opened up the drawers and was pleased to find that they'd given us a clean outfit to wear for today. I threw on a towel and began to make my way to the showers. Luckily, it was fairly empty, so I didn't have to wait around or anything. I just hoped today would go better than yesterday did. At least the showers were warm, right? I can't stand cold showers.  
I decided to grab a quick glass of water, then went on my way to the academy. The large building seemed to loom over all of Death City, but it seemed to give a sense of protection as well. Finally, I reached the base of the stairs, ready to begin my climb. A few students were already making their way up, all too used to climbing it by now. I looked around me for signs of Kat and Nik, but I couldn't see them anywhere. Oh well. These stairs didn’t look too bad, and I scored high on my physical test, so this should be a walk in the park, right? I just wish I'd brought a snack...


	5. Chapter 5

### Nik

I woke up at precisely 5:30 AM, thanks to the alarm clock that Sasha had lent me. Luckily nobody else woke up, because it was right underneath my pillow. I got up and woke Kat up like she'd asked me to. "It's Sunday," she muttered. "I can still sleep in."  
"C'mon, Kat, the whole point of waking up this early is to get up the stairs in time." She rolled over sleepily and sat up. She seemed to remember where she was suddenly and opened her dresser for the day's clothes. She went off to shower, but since I'd already done that last night, I didn't follow. I dressed quickly and went to the kitchen before realizing we had to eat breakfast at the cafeteria. Crap. Kat soon finished her shower and I explained the situation. She grumbled about it, but since we didn't have anything to prepare for anymore, we left ahead of schedule. "So, I was thinking maybe over the break we could climb these stairs every day for training." I tried to sound light as we began our ascent. There weren't any students around. I guess that at this point they're used to the staircase.  
"Are you crazy?! Can't we do something easier, like climb the trees in the forest or something?!" She was pretty upset. I guess anybody would be. You probably would be, if you knew just how high those stairs were. Even a detailed description won't be able to truly show the anguish one must go through to climb these stairs.  
"That can be our upper body training," I grinned. I didn't have any plans for the future anymore, but so what? I could still prepare for the class that I knew, sooner or later, would require me being fit. I didn't do too great on the physical exam, but I'd spent a good deal of time on Soul Eater Wiki and I had also been in a challenge program back in my old... world? Home? Whatever it was. I'd done really well on the written test. I guess it also helped that I'd read the whole manga series and watched the full anime series.  
"You're crazy," Kat said. At least we weren't panting or anything. On the bright side, Sasha had lent us two water bottles for the trip! She was being really nice to us. I guess my gut was wrong about her not seeming quite right.  
"Halfway there, Kat!" We weren't even panting. Much. We stopped for a quick break.  
"Today, we're buying stuff for tomorrow's breakfast. I can't do this on an empty stomach again."  
"Agreed." I lay back, but we had to keep going. The first students were beginning to come from the bottom, and they were definitely faster than us. We continued on. The only thing that really kept me going was the idea of food. Mmm... with luck, we'd be able to have the full meal and still make it to class on time. The first groups of students started passing us. I recognized only a few, such as Maka and Soul, or the boy who wore camo pants, with that girl again. She was a brunette, and had determined green eyes. She smiled her support as she passed us. It was the boy who surprised me, though. He was jumping every other step! And laughing! In fact, as I looked forward, he was tugging the brunette forward, who was barely keeping up with him. His energy must have rubbed off or something, or maybe I just noticed how close we were, because with a spurt of adrenaline I ran the last couple steps, falling down right at the top. Kat soon followed.  
"Food." she poked me and I got up. We found a map, thankfully, in the front hall, and went to the cafeteria. I found a clock in there. 6:27. YEEEEES. Kat got eggs and bacon, I settled for French toast. I was so happy that we had time to eat it all. I wondered if the boys would have time. I waved as Mike and Bill walked in. It was about 6:36, I guess they didn't start as early as we did. Then again, literally nobody did. In any case, it was 6:49 when we finished and brought our dishes to the return section. The guys had sat with us, but it was obvious they needed to eat first, and didn't want to be late, so we merely said bye and left. We managed to somehow find our classroom and were just about to walk in when I heard someone down the hall call me.  
"Nicole!" I turned and my eyes slightly widened. It was Death the Kid. Kat nudged me with a grin on her face and entered the class.  
"You know, you can just call me Nik," I told him as he walked up to me.  
"If you want others to call you Nik, you might want to apply for a nickname," he replied.  
"So what did you need?" I asked. I noticed Marie peek out the door, but evidently she wasn't looking for us, because she went back inside. Kid didn't say anything. Instead, he hooked his fingers into my belt loops and tugged the left side up to even out with the right side. Again. My face turned pink. Was he going to do this every day?! He examined them for a bit and then nodded. "Er... thanks."  
"No problem." We walked inside and went to our designated seats. I was surprised when Bill didn't show up, but I had to focus so I didn't think too much about it. I was relieved to see we weren't dissecting frogs today. Or anything. We were basically given textbooks and told which chapters to study, since there would be a test when we came back in January. That was when I was going to start getting marked seriously, so I decided I would have to study after we went shopping later today. Getting a textbook didn't take very long at all, so we had a quiz until lunch. It was pretty tough, I had to work really hard on it, and I don't think I even got all the questions right. I probably got at least a decent score, though, it's not like he quizzed us on our dissection yesterday. We left the class for lunch, meeting Sasha along the way.  
"Tough quiz, huh?" I asked Kat as we left.  
"I think I did pretty good," Sasha claimed. Kat nodded too.  
"It was tough, but the voices in my head brought me through!"  
"Kat, that's called thinking." We arrived in the cafeteria before she could reply.  
"Kurtis! Mike! It feels like it's been forever! How are your classes going?" I high fived them both.  
"Eh, fine. I'm getting really good at transforming." Mike grinned. We chose out lunches.  
"I'll have the grand slam burger... No cheese, please," Kurtis said glumly. "I missed breakfast."  
"I'll have a BLT, hold the B," I smiled. I'd always wanted to say that. "Should have gotten up early, like Kat and I did."  
"A salad sandwich, you mean?" Kurtis kidded. He ignored my remark about waking up early. He's always been a late sleeper, just getting to class was probably early for him. "Hey, where's Bill, anyway?"  
"Eh, he never showed up for class," Kat said. "Is he sick or something?"  
"He looked fine when we finished the stairs," Mike said. "Better than me, at least." Suddenly we heard someone call from the door.  
"Hey, guys!"  
"Who's that?" Kat joked. Bill walked in, wearing a pair of glasses that looked kind of weird, compared to his old pair. Oh well, at least he could see now. I'll never forget the mess he made out of his frog yesterday... He quickly chose his lunch and joined us. Sasha sat down beside Kat and I realized we hadn't introduced her.  
"Oh yeah, guys, this is Sasha! She's in the EAT class with us and she's also our roommate."  
"Weapon or meister?" Mike asked, getting right to the point. I kept forgetting we needed to ask her that.  
"Meister. How bout all of you?" We each stated what we were.  
"Sasha and I were actually thinking of partnering up," Kat said between mouthfuls of a peanut butter and jam sandwich.  
"That'd be great! That means now the rest of us can, too! Just in time to practice over the break." I grinned. I wondered who to partner up with. Part of me wanted to be with Kid, but that was just dumb. He had Liz and Patty. So, Bill or Kurtis?  
If I was with Kurtis, then both boys would be brought back to the EAT, I realized. I kept this quiet, though. If Kurtis really did that bad on the test, maybe he belonged in NOT. But I couldn't see him failing that bad! What could have made him fail? He had supposedly gotten to the bonus question, but I seriously doubted that since he was so evasive when I asked about it. Oh gosh, what if he had stayed to actually answer number one?! That idiot. Just for that he should stay in NOT. I realized the others were talking.  
"So what do you think?" Bill asked.  
"Eh. Repeat the question."  
"Should we just train with us wielding both of you, in case the first partnership turns out incompatible?" Kurtis spoke.  
"Yeah, good idea." It would give me time to think about who I would want to be my meister. I guess they also had a choice too. We finished lunch and were given our allowances on our way out. "I don't know about you, but I want some of my own clothes. I'm going shopping. And maybe I'll apply for a job while I'm at it." We found our way to the staircase out front and began the trek down.  
"A job?" Bill asked.  
"Why would you need a job? We just got our allowance." Kurtis questioned.  
"Well, we've got no clothes or anything, so I want to be sure that I'll have enough money for food this week by the time I'm done getting clothes. Besides, if I choose a labour job, I can also work on my upper body strength, something these stairs don't help with."  
"Understandable," Sasha nodded. "If you don't choose something too hard, then perhaps I could assist."  
"Well I'm definitely not waitressing. I can't stand standing for such a long time."  
"Wouldn't standing for a long time be good training?" Kurtis asked. I glared at him.  
"Yeah, plus then Sasha and I can help you!" Kat beamed. Well, there went my hopes for an arm strength job. I sighed.  
"Alright. Are you guys getting a job?"  
"Might as well," Bill responded. "We need clothes, too."  
"Except _we_ aren't waitressing." Mike grinned. "We'll check out the pamphlet at the dorms."  
"There was a pamphlet at the dorms?" I guess Kurtis hadn't noticed. It was a little hard to, it was in the middle of the billboard, which was right in front of the front door. Then again, the guy's dorms might be different.  
"So I guess we can go shopping with this," I held up my little bag of money. "And then we'll apply for a job at the café. If it looks busy inside, don't come in." There was a small silence, before I muttered, "I only hope the uniforms aren't the same as in Soul Eater Not!..." Of course, that was only jinxing it.  
"I'm _so_ going to kill you after this, Kat."  
"What, why?!" she protested.  
"Cause if I kill you now, I'll probably be fired."  
"I don't think that's what she meant," Sasha smiled as she left. I didn't return it. This skirt was too dang short. I'm totally fine with a short skirt and all, but the tailor of this outfit seemed to have thrown the ‘below the finger’ rule for shorts and skirts. I went out and took a notepad, heading for the first table with a smile.  
"Can I take your order?" I prepared my pencil. We all agreed beforehand that after the first couple or orders I would carry the trays, as nobody else seemed as worried as I was about arm strength. The people in front of me spoke quickly, but I managed to write it all down and gave the slip to the café owner person. There was already a tray there, since Sasha had gotten out before us. I brought it to table 7, like the slip of paper had said to. The rest of the afternoon passed by much like that, and my feet were killing me when we finally got a break. I changed back into my camo pants and stuff and we headed home, where our clothes were waiting.  
"Dang it, we forgot to buy food!" Kat face palmed at our ignorance. Luckily Sasha held out a bag.  
"Don't worry, while you were buying clothes, I got this!" We peered into the bag. Mac 'n' cheese! My favourite! Even better, it was the kind you get in a box, where you can make it on the pot or in the microwave! Within minutes, we were eating the cheesy goodness. My stomach was thanking me sincerely on the way back. I was secretly thanking Sasha.  
I opened the door and immediately our roommates looked over. Such creepy eyes... They were definitely red. Contacts, obviously. Zaydie went back to her laptop, though I couldn`t see what she was doing. Her earbuds were in. I could hear the music from my bed, but I guess the others didn’t notice because they didn't say anything. Kate looked at me kind of weirdly.  
"So, uh, maybe we should get to know each other, since we're gonna be sharing this room from now on," I said nervously. Kate scrunched up her mouth funny, but I guess she felt the same way, because she bookmarked her page in the book she was reading and put it down. Before I could say anything she turned and pulled Zaydie's earplugs out.  
"Eh?" she asked. Her face had a mixed expression of boredom and annoyance.  
"Blondie wants a get to know each other session." Excuse me? Blondie? She was blonder than I was! Zaydie made a weird exhaling sound and shut her laptop.  
"Weapon. Black hair. Red eyes. 15. Ish. Can I go back to what I was doing now?" I must have had a startled expression. "Guess not," she grumbled, and put it aside, sitting up properly.  
"So what do you want to know?" Kate asked. I felt sort of cornered. Maybe this was a bad idea.  
"I- I don't know. Just, I want to be friends, you know?"  
"I don't need any more friends," Zaydie said darkly. She was messed up. Or something. Scary.  
"I wasn't saying you did! I- I just thought, cause we're spending the whole year here and stuff, that, well-" I didn't know what to say.  
"Cut the stammering," Zaydie interrupted me.  
"Don't worry, she's only like this for the first little while," Kate smiled slightly. Maybe she didn't dislike me after all. I noticed she wasn't looking at me though. Maybe she didn't like how I looked.  
"Ah, so, let's start over," I said. "My name is Nicole, but you can call me Nik." Kat was talking with Sasha about something, which explained why they weren't joining in this lovely session.  
"Zaydie. You can call me just that." Was that sarcasm? This wasn't going very well.  
"I'm Kate. We sit a couple rows in front of you in class." I didn't know that. Then again, I didn't know anybody really, other than Kid and the others from Soul Eater.  
"Cool... I just got here yesterday-" I started.  
"Yep, figured that," Zaydie cut in.  
"A-And I came from a different dimension where stuff isn't animated or anything..." I finished. It got their attention.  
"You're from the UA dimension?" Kate seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.  
"Er, UA?"  
"Un-Animated. Duh." Zaydie, of course.  
"Um, yes. I come from the UA dimension."  
"How do you brush your hair there? Maka says that you have millions of hairs!" Well this was a change. For Kate, at least. Zaydie still seemed really sulky.  
"I just... put a brush through it." She asked some more questions, but life was pretty much the same there as it was here. Except for TV shows, of course. I mean, they had TV, but since the dimension thing had only recently been made, they had yet to bring something that played a TV show from our world into the interdimensional vault. From there, I suppose they would film it with an animated camera and bring that back. But then, wouldn't the video have to stay? It was confusing me, the ideas Kate was bringing up. In any case, it was better than her just looking at me warily every time I walked in. Somehow I got invited to lunch with them tomorrow.  
"Eh, really? You guys wouldn't mind?"  
"Of course not!"  
"Meh. Are we done, now?" Zaydie complained.  
"Oh, come on Zay, we can spend some time with our new roomie."  
"We already have," she grumbled.  
"Why are your eyes red?" I asked suddenly. I put my hands over my mouth. I hadn't meant to say that! Why had I-  
"Cause they've got blood in them," she said, grinning creepily.  
"I-Is that healthy?" I asked, pretty creeped out. My hands still covered my lips. Were those fangs?  
"I get along fine," she muttered. She seemed to like creeping me out, because she suddenly said, "You wanna know _why_ they're filled with blood?" I wasn't sure. But I felt my head nod along reluctantly. I swear, though, I didn't do it of my own free will. Zaydie leaned in closer.  
"Do you really have to do this?" Kate seemed bored. Zaydie stayed unphased.  
"Because," she whispered, and I swear, I felt something at my ear. She was about to say something else when I felt something painful in my ear. "Something's wrong with you," she said seriously, and wait, was that concern I heard? But no, it couldn't be, she was digging her nails into my ear! I tried to pull her arm away, but then Kate grabbed my arm.  
"Nik, there's something in there!" But it hurt! It hurt, and Kate was letting her scrape at my ear, at whatever was in there!  
"Stop it!" I yelled, and suddenly with one last shot of pain, Zaydie pulled something out. A blood covered... bug?  
"Zaydie." Kate warned, but I guess it was too late. She-  
EW! She ate that THING! And it was just in my EAR! I was horrified. Kate only sighed and put her head into her hand.  
"Sorry," Zaydie slurped. "Newbie. No news of this, kay?" I nodded, mostly because they had gone from future friends to effing scary. I held my bleeding ear, which Kate began to examine.  
"I'll go talk to Kim," she muttered. Soon Kim Diehl was walking in with Kate. She looked at my ear and put her hand on it, mumbling her magic word things. Immediately, the pain dulled, then was gone.  
"Thanks." I looked up at her, still shaken. She scowled.  
"The heck happened to your ear, anyway?"  
"There was something in it," Kate explained.  
"Some kind of insect," Zaydie put in. "Judging by the taste... hmm... not a very common one. Or maybe her blood just tastes good." She grinned that creepy grin at me again. I scooted away a bit.  
"I've known you long enough to know that you know the difference between human blood and insect blood." Kate poked her. She stopped grinning.  
"Yeah, yeah. It was an uncommon insect. Long body, four skinny back legs, two spiky front legs, wings... Bout this big." She put her thumb and first finger about an inch or two apart. Kim left with a grunt. Kate immediately sniffed my ear.  
"Eh?! What are you doing?!" I scooted further away from her. What was wrong with these two?! Kate sighed and looked to Zaydie. She shook her head.  
"Tell you later," Kate said, and lay back down on the bed. That was the end of our friendly gathering, I guess. I thought I heard her mutter something about a certain time of the month, but she was probably just worried about her period. I wondered where Kat and Sasha ran off to. Probably training, since they're practically official partners. Oh well. I decided to go climb some trees in the forest out back, to get some _actual_ arm strength. I'm not sure it did much, I used my feet a lot. When I came back, Kat and Sasha were asleep, Kate was reading and Zaydie was on her laptop. I showered and changed into my new pyjamas. I studied for a couple minutes, for the big exam, but I was pretty tired so I just went to bed after a while.


	6. Chapter 6

### Kurtis

I stood at the top of the stairs, trying to catch my breath. After noticing I was the last one on the stairs, it dawned on me that I was probably going to miss breakfast, and probably be late for class too. I ended up running up half of the staircase, and I was pooped. Even the extra agility this dimension seemed to offer didn't help me. Worse, I had to go until lunch on an empty stomach. I decided I'd taken a long enough break, and I needed to head straight to class. I didn't want to make a habit of showing up late. I guess my memory wasn't so bad, because I was able to find my way into my classroom without getting lost, just as class was starting. The instructor smiled at me as I walked into class, and I hoped I wasn’t too noticeably winded. He stopped me and asked for my name suddenly. I began to worry. Did I do something wrong? I didn’t think so.  
"I'm Kurtis," I told him, answering his question. "I'm one of the new students, I just showed up yesterday."  
"Ah, I thought so. Here, you'll be needing this for today." He said, handing me a textbook. "I wanted to catch you after class, but you ran off before I could get your name."  
"Oh, sorry," I apologized. I guess I did run off right as class ended, I should've been more organized. Oh well.  
"It's no problem, since you showed up so late into the year, you aren't being graded right now. This is mostly to get you used to the class. Here, I'll lend you some paper and a pencil for today, as we'll be note-taking." He handed me a few papers and a pencil. "Meister, right?"  
"Uh, yeah. Why?" I asked.  
"I'm assuming that's your partner over there then, right?" He asked, pointing to Mike. "I heard Shibusen brought in a few weapons yesterday, too."  
"No, actually, I don't have a weapon yet. I came here with my friends, and there was five of us, so we agreed none of us would choose a partner until one of the weapons found a meister first."  
"Fair enough," he reasoned, though I could see he wasn't happy with my answer. "Now take your seat, the lesson's beginning."  
I sat beside Mike again, feeling too antisocial to talk to any other classmates. I tried to focus more on the lesson this time, but I found my eyes wandering the room. Out of the 20 or so students in the class, none of them looked really interesting. In fact, most of them looked like completely normal everyday people. Each one probably had their own story and reason for being in this class. With a jolt, I realized I was zoning out. I was trying to pay attention this class!  
"… you can read on paragraph three, weapon transformation becomes second nature after getting used to it. Now, I want you to answer questions 1 through 8, short one-sentence answers will do." Crap. What page were we on? I flipped through some pages in my book frantically before glancing over at Mike's book. Page 216, alright. The questions were a breeze compared to the placement test I had to take yesterday. I finished with time to spare, confident with my answers, and I ended up doodling all over my paper. The rest of class went by just as easy, and after some note taking on subjects I already had a good grasp of, we were dismissed for the holidays.  
Mike and I headed straight for the lunchroom, where we met the others. They introduced us to a new friend, Sasha, who was apparently going to be Kat's new meister. That meant we could finally group up. We settled on deciding on partners later, for now everyone was going to look for a job.  
Somehow, by throwing in a quick joke, I managed to land the girls in a waitressing job. Bill and Mike both got jobs as stock boys at the market. I figured I could take the day off and relax, and just be tight with my money.  
Back at my dorm, just as I was dropping off my supplies and about to lay down on my bed for a nap, I realized I had a whole lot of things to buy this week. As in, I'd have to go without food for a week if I wanted to afford new clothes, books _and_ school supplies. So it looked like I was getting a job after all.  
I managed to get myself a job as a lawnmower, which wasn't exactly the strength training I had in mind, but it was better than nothing, and the pay wasn't bad. I was given five houses to mow lawns for, and after a good few hours’ work I got my pay. A hundred bucks for mowing a few lawns? That wasn't bad pay. And I could actually afford to eat this week too! Finally something was going right. I wondered how the others were making out.  
Would I even see them by dinner? I doubted it, it was already getting late and I had no reason to return back to my dorm, so it looked like I was eating alone tonight. I wanted to treat myself to something nice, but I decided against it. Maybe once I saved up enough cash that I wasn't living week by week. I eventually ended up eating at a cheap Chinese food place.  
I arrived at the dorms before Bill and Mike made it back, so I had some free time. I wanted, more than anything, to start training with a weapon, but we hadn't decided on partners yet. There wasn’t much else to do around the dorms, so I ended up skimming through the textbook I was given earlier that day. I tried to take in as many interesting facts about being a meister, but a lot of it was fairly boring. I guess that's what the advanced class was for. Finally, Bill and Mike got back to the dorms.  
"Hey, guys," I said, closing my textbook and standing up to stretch.  
"Hey Kurtis," they greeted back.  
"So what took you so long?" I asked them.  
"Well, we ended up working overtime on our job," Mike explained. "We got paid a bunch for working extra late."  
"I see."  
"Anyways, we're both really tired, so we're going to bed," Bill butted in. He looked exhausted. I decided to do the same, I didn't want to keep them up. I laid in bed, surprisingly tired as well. I guess it was a fairly long day today. I thought of the exam coming up in a month. I'd have to find some time to fit studying in, the last thing I needed was to fail the exam. I also wanted to get some training in tomorrow, I didn’t want this new opportunity to go to waste. Before I knew it, I seemingly blinked, and morning was here. I felt oddly refreshed too, as if I had a great sleep last night.  
After showering and getting dressed, we headed out early. I brought a fair amount of money with me, in case we decided to go shopping later. For now, though, we just stopped to buy muffins at Deathbucks Café. After getting it takeout, we headed to meet the girls outside of their dorm. Nik, Kat and Sasha stood outside waiting for us. A blonde and a disinterested looking black-haired girl were sitting next to them.  
"You guys should thank me!" Kat yelled as we started walking into sight of them.  
"Why?" asked Mike.  
"Cause this one," she jerked her thumb at Nik, "wanted to climb the stairs!" Nik smiled innocently.  
"So are we gonna do some training today?" I asked, eager to finally get started.  
"Yup!" Nik said excitedly. "We're bringing Zaydie and Kate along, too. Hopefully they can help us out. They're second years who're renting at the dorms. Also our roommates."  
"Alright. So what are we waiting for? Let's get started!"  
"We should probably go shopping after training, too," Mike added.  
"Yeah," Nik agreed, holding up some money. "We already brought some money just in case." I noticed Nik shoot a quick look of... was that fear? Towards Zaydie. I didn't blame her, something about Zaydie seemed off. She had red eyes, and I wasn't entirely sure they were contacts. We started off into the forest behind the dorms where we hoped to train our skills. Sasha started talking to me on the walk.  
"Hi. Kurtis, right?"  
"Yeah," I answered, wondering where this was going.  
"Cool. I didn't really get to meet you properly yesterday, so I figured, since we'll be part of a team and stuff, we should get to know each other better!"  
"Yeah, alright."  
"So, tell me about yourself," she chimed. Was she hitting on me?  
"Uhh, well I was brought here with my friends and brother. I'm a meister, I guess, and I'm originally from the other dimension."  
"Cool. The other kids will probably love you if they find out," she laughed. We arrived in a nice clearing in the forest where we could all train.  
"So have you ever fought anything before?" she asked, as Kat transformed and she grabbed her expertly.  
"I've done some fencing back in my dimension."  
"Alright kids!" Kate said suddenly. "Have either of you got any idea how to use either of them?"  
"Uhh... we had a small archery class at camp Redwood," I answered.  
"I'm surprised you even remember camp Redwood," Nik said. I wasn't sure if she was teasing or not.  
"It was only last year, but I can remember the polar bear swim better than the archery lessons."  
"How much training did you get?" pressed Kate. She wanted to get on with the lesson, it seemed.  
"Uhh... maybe an hour," I answered.  
"I didn't go to Redwood," Bill said.  
"Do you have any experience with bladed weapons?" she asked.  
"Yeah, both Bill and I took fencing for 6 years," I told her. "I was a lot better though."  
"Alright, you use the bow then," Zaydie said to me.  
"What? Why?" I asked.  
"'The bow' has a name, you know," Nik added grumpily.  
"Cause, you gotta work on what you don’t know first," Zaydie said, ignoring her.  
"Weapons, transform!" Kate commanded. I watched as Nik and Mike turned into weapons in a flash of light. It was a strange sight, really, seeing your friends suddenly become weapons. I saw Bill grab Mike out of the air as he turned into his scythe form. He had a white blade with blood red edges. I felt a pang of jealousy, that weapon looked really cool. I hoped Nik's weapon form was just as awesome. Oh yeah, Nik. I probably shouldn't have let her just fall to the ground like that.  
"Dude, what the hell," Nik grumbled angrily to me. She had taken the form of a golden bow, with intricate green designs inlaid along the centre parts. She wasn't just a bow, however, as she was able to be split in two, and the arms of the bow used as twin daggers. For now, though, I was to be using her bow form.  
"Sorry," I apologized, and bent to pick her up. I saw Sasha snickering to herself, and Zaydie with her face in her hands. I couldn’t help but feel embarrassed.  
"I can help you out with using a bow," Sasha offered, holding up Kat.  
"Alright, sure thanks. Uhh... where are the arrows?" I wondered out loud.  
"The arrows are made from a combination of your soul wavelengths," she giggled, and motioned to a spot where I wouldn't hurt anyone with a stray arrow. I swear she was hitting on me.  
"Ohh, okay. So how do I fire it?" I asked, looking over the bow that Nik had transformed into.  
"Like this!" She fired, just grazing my ear. She was beginning to weird me out now. "Your bow will be a little different since the string is made from her soul wavelength, but the key is being able to resonate with her."  
"Right," I said, rubbing my slightly sore ear. She should be more careful with firing these things, they were deadly! I tried putting my hand on the string made of her wavelength, but I got a nasty shock instead.  
"Oww!" I yelped, almost dropping her. "What's wrong with you?" I demanded of Nik. I thought she'd be really easy to use.  
"What's with the attitude?!" she barked. "You usually don't blame me for things I can't control!"  
"Stop fighting," Sasha butted in, smiling slightly. "Focus on her soul, try resonating with her first."  
I calmed down. I usually didn’t get frustrated over these things anyways. This wasn't like me, Nik was right. I never blame anyone without good reason. I took a deep breath, and focused on her soul. I felt like I had it this time, so I tried again.  
I placed my fingers on the string, bracing myself for a shock, but this time I got a light staticy feeling, like touching an old TV, or when your hand falls asleep. At least it didn't hurt. I drew the string back, Sasha watching in anticipation. I thought of aiming right at her head, as payback, but dismissed that thought quickly. I went to aim at a tree, however there was still no arrow.  
"What the hell!" I thought angrily. "Nik?" I tried to stay calm. The string burned my fingers slightly.  
"Kurtis…" She felt it too. I calmed myself down again, and the burning eased.  
"How do I make an arrow?" I asked Sasha.  
"Just focus on keeping resonated, if you draw the bow back the arrow should form if you're resonating properly. Remember, the arrow is made of your soul wavelengths," she advised.  
"Ready?" I asked Nik.  
"Yeah, I think so."  
I drew her back again, and focused hard on the resonance. I glanced over at where the arrow should be, but still it was empty. What was Nik doing?! It felt like I was doing all the work, she needed to stop slacking!  
"Agh!" I screamed in pain, as the string shocked me again, even harder than before. I threw Nik to the ground, fed up with her.  
"Ow, what's your problem?!" Nik asked, sounding pretty annoyed. I ignored her, fists clenched, staring at the tree I was supposed to be using as target practice. I thought for a minute. What WAS my problem?  
"Kurtis!" Zaydie snapped. "Treat your weapons with respect! What are you doing throwing her to the ground?!"  
Something in me just snapped. I refused to be yelled at for _her_ mistakes. I kept my mouth shut, luckily for them, and stormed off. Nik began to transform back.  
"Kurtis, wait!" I heard Nik calling, as she tried to catch up to me. I shot a glare over my shoulder at her, stopping her dead in her tracks. This really wasn't like me, in fact I've always managed to keep myself calm, no matter the situation. So why now suddenly?

I needed some time alone.


	7. Chapter 7

### Nik

Why, why, why, why? Why didn't we resonate? Why was he acting like that? Out of all people, I should have been the one to freak when it didn't work! Why?! I held back tears as I watched my best friend run off through the woods.  
"Should we go after him?" Kate asked quietly. I don't know how, but something told me we would be able to find him with Kate around.  
"No," I mumbled. He would only be angrier if we pursued him. "You guys keep training, I'll go climb the stairs or something. I need to go to Shibusen for something anyway." I ran off in the opposite direction, wishing I could take my mind off this. Why? It didn't make sense. I reached the stairs in record time and kept going. I didn't mind that I was panting before the halfway point, I needed the distraction. Finally the tears came. "Why, why, why?! It should have been easy, he's my best friend!!"   
I pushed him out of my mind and ran the rest of the way. Any students I passed in the hall only gave me a passing glance. At this point I was red from running, not crying. I got lost, of course. I sat down on a staircase and tried not to think about anything. I hugged my legs. I didn't belong here. I wanted to go home. Back where I didn't have to worry about training to fight. What happened to my plans?  
"Hey," a voice said from behind me. Probably some kid talking to his friend. "Are you okay?" I straightened up and turned my head. It was Kid. I didn't really want to talk to him about Kurtis right then.  
"Just... lost," I muttered. "Do you know where I'm supposed to go to get a nickname change?" I quickly thought of an excuse. Why had I really come? I hadn't had a reason, really. Well, that would do.  
"Normally you'd go see the lady who gives missions to kids, but my father wanted to see you, so you can get the change there." He stretched his hand out for me to stand up. I took it, not wanting to be rude. I followed him silently to the Death room. Why would he.... I pushed the thought away. I had other things to think about. Wait, that one actually was important. Why would Death want me? Kid opened the door, letting me walk in. For once he didn't adjust my pants, mostly because they were already evenly hitched up. That's sweatpants, for you.   
"Hello, Nicole!" Death greeted me comically.  
"Eh..." I looked to Kid, who was already talking to Spirit about getting name change forms. "Can I get 3, actually?" I said to Kid, who nodded. "So what's up?" I asked. I would have put my hands in my pockets and slouched or something, but I didn't have pockets. So I just sort of stood there awkwardly.   
"This is in regard to the incident between Kate Doverty, Zaydie Saunders and of course, you." I didn't know their last names, but it wasn't too hard to figure out who he was talking about. And what.  
"Umm... about the... " I trailed off. I was kind of uncomfortable about my crush- wait, I thought I agreed that I didn't want a crush on him. But I couldn't just ignore that he was my favourite character- er, student- here. Anyway I wasn't really comfortable about everybody knowing about the bug. From my ear. Ew. Death didn't seem to notice I was uncomfortable.  
"Bug? Yup!" I frowned. Oh well, at least Spirit was leaving for the forms. And Kid didn't seem disturbed or anything.  
"Uh, so what about it?"   
"We'd like you to write down as many people as you can who have interacted with you in the past couple days. Also, you're going to need to be examined to make sure there aren't any others..." I really hoped they had some kind of X ray, and maybe something that wouldn't hurt so much when they pulled out any possible bugs. Ew. There might be more? I shuddered. I felt really weird inside. I swear, Kid was smiling, too! No wait, that was just me.  
"Nope, nothing in there!" Death smiled. At least it sounded like he smiled. I don't really know. But wait, what?! He'd already checked?! Spirit came back with the forms. I had forgotten to tell him whose names I was changing so he'd brought all five of our forms. I quickly put Kurtis's and Mike's aside and wrote 'Nik' under Nicole. I then wrote 'Kat' under Katherine and 'Bill' under William. Hey, I'd almost forgotten that was his name! In any case, they were sure to thank me. Probably. I gave the forms back and was given another sheet of paper.   
Oh yeah, who have I come into contact with. I thought back. I hadn't really touched anyone... There was Kid, he kept pulling my pants up, but I didn't think he put the bug in there. Let's see, and after class Sasha had become my friend. I guess we've probably exchanged a high five here and there. I didn't really want to write her name down, she was really nice to me. But I had to write everybody's name, right? Even Kid was written there.   
I suddenly noticed a little line dividing the page. They wanted to know where I was touched? Man that could have been awkward. If I was the type to do other stuff. Which I totally wasn't. I wrote hips beside Kid's name. That was so gonna look weird to them. I tried to recall just where Sasha had touched me.   
Er, that sounded wrong. Oh well. Let's see, shoulder, ear, hand- wait. Ear. I'd gotten that sudden shiver when her hand had brushed by my ear. But... no, why would- she was so nice to me! I had to write this, though. I couldn't just lie to DEATH. Even if I wanted to, I'm like, seriously against lying in every way. If I have a test thing that's late and it asks me if I'm gonna do something that's already happened I either leave it blank or say no. Easy marks, gone.   
*sigh*   
Anyway, was there anywhere else we'd touched? Gosh, I felt like I was writing Sasha a death note, for all the great things she'd done. But... what if it turned out she was behind the bug?!   
"Are you okay?" Kid asked quizzically. "You're looking kind of pale."  
"I- I'm fine," I stammered, and went back to it. There was Kat, we'd hugged and high fived. Kate, she'd grabbed my arm when the bug came out. Somehow I don't think she put it in right before Zaydie ripped it out. I erased Kate's name. "This is right up until Zaydie got it out, right?"  
"Yep," Death said. Rather joyfully, I thought, considering the topic. I couldn't think of anyone else I'd touched. I hugged my brother... I don't think I even came into actual contact with Kurtis or Bill... I gave them the paper. There was no way they would suspect my best friends. I hoped. Or Kid. But that only left Sasha.   
I was dismissed. Had I just hung my new friend? My best friend's partner? What a terrible day this was turning out to be. I left. They didn't need me anymore. I bumped into that brunette from before.  
"Sorry," I muttered, and kept going.   
"Hey, you're that new girl, right? What's bringing you down?" she asked. I looked up. Her black haired friend was with her. Did they ever separate? He was bouncing up and down. Zaydie had made me swear to silence about the bug. So I had to think of something else. But I couldn't lie! Wait, there was something else that was bringing me down.  
"I couldn't resonate with my best friend." I felt weird telling her about my problems. But she didn't know me, anyway, so she'd probably just forget it by tomorrow. I prepared to find my own way back, when she nudged me and pointed in a different direction I started walking, but much to my dismay she came along, her bouncing companion with us.  
"Your best friend?" she looked seriously confused. "How long have you been friends?"  
"I dunno. Years, I su-"  
"Wha?" the boy stopped bouncing. "Whatchya need?"  
"She wasn't talking to you, Dunny," the girl smiled at him sweetly. "Sorry about that. But back to your problem. Maybe I could help you with it. I've never seen a best friend partnership that didn't work on the first try."  
"Well I guess we just don't work. Or maybe it's gotta do with the whole UA thing," I grumbled. I wasn't being very nice, but I wasn't really feeling very nice either.  
"Uh-uh, I've been here a long time, and I know for a fact, even with the UA, you should have been able to resonate." I glanced up. She looked concerned. Like an older sister. It clicked. Her eyes. She had the same eyes as the boy.  
"Are you... is that your brother?" I asked pointing the boy who'd started drawing furiously in a sketchpad which was filled with colours. The current drawing had lots of orange and bright green. In crayon. He reminded me of Patty.  
"Yup! Oh, silly me, I haven't even introduced myself! I'm Ida, and this is Dunny." The boy looked up expectantly. He beamed widely at me and held out his hand to me for a handshake, dropping his crayon. I took it warily and suddenly, my arm had broken the speed record. Or something. I guess his energy rubbed off on me or something cause I was suddenly really happy and I started laughing. He laughed too. Ida looked at us warily.   
"Crap. Not again. Come on," she literally had to pull us behind her. What was so funny? Everything! The sky was blue! The grass was green! Trees could grow in a desert! Well, we were in an oasis. But who cared? There were unknown places to explore! The girl tugged my wrist. Go with her? Sure! Maybe she has a quest for us! We can rescue little kitties!   
Bounce down the staircase! Whee! We jumped into a pretty building. It was painted bright colours. Smelled like family, too… Mmm. The girl handed me some tea.   
Why? Who cared! It tasted good! Mm...   
Eh? What?   
"Ah, I'm so sorry! I'm usually not that excitable!" Not 100% true... but it wasn't really a lie either. A handshake shouldn't have been enough to make me so happy. I looked at Dunny, who was smiling and wide-eyed, but not laughing anymore.  
"No, no, it was my fault. You looked sad, so I thought it was okay. It only happens with people who have chirpy personalities. I should have checked your soul first." She looked really embarrassed. I was embarrassed too. What if Kid had seen me? Wait, no I didn't care about that. Did I? I sipped the tea some more. It was strangely calming.   
"Wait, is that what soul resonance feels like?" I asked. No wonder I wasn't able to fire an arrow! I hadn't felt that happy since... since I was back in the UA dimension...  
"Only if both people are chirpy types," she laughed. "Soul resonance is different for every person. With you and your friend, it's probably much, much different." I looked down at my cup.   
"Oh..."   
"Don't worry about it. Here... the day after tomorrow. Shall I demonstrate for you then?" That was fine by me. We were switching partners tomorrow anyway. I realized I hadn't had lunch. Crap! I was supposed to meet Kate and Zaydie!  
"I-I'm sorry, but I just remembered I promised my roommates I would have lunch with them!" Ida only laughed.  
"A bit late for lunch, wouldn't you say?" She pointed to a clock. Eh?! 3:45?! My stomach was hurting. I was hungry. But I didn't know how to contact them, or where I even was, so I obliged to her offer to lunch. I would have to apologize to the girls later.  
Since I would be having dinner soon, she didn't make anything big or whatever. Just a sandwich, though by Dunny's reaction you would have thought it was buried gold. Maybe to him it actually was....   
I said a grateful goodbye and got five steps out the door before realizing I had no idea where we were. I hoped I would remember where I went when I resonated with the others. I started walking left, towards the looming figure of Shibusen, when Dunny and Ida came out.   
"Sorry!" Dunny grinned. He didn't look sorry. Ida probably made him say that.  
"You probably have no idea where you are, huh?" she said with concern. She gave me a hastily drawn map. "There. X marks the spot," she winked. I said bye, and was prepared to follow the map when Dunny whispered to me.  
"I got a shortcut if you wanna take it!" He was practically begging me to say yes. How could I deny him? He put his hand on my shoulder. Oh no. Here we went again...   
Laughter!! I waved bye to my friend behind me. Life was a roller coaster! Buildings blurred by. Oh, look a forest! And a building, blocking my way? Hmm. I’d have to see if the people knew they built a building in my roller coaster path. Maybe they liked roller coasters, too!  
"Snick? Why are you... jumping?" The girl looked nice. Wait, I knew her.   
"Why wouldn't I be jumping?" I laughed. And laughed. The inner me was asking for tea.   
Why? Why did I need tea? Who cared?   
"Can I have tea!?" The girl, Kat! Yeah! That was her name! She looked at me funny and went inside. I saw a girl with red eyes. How cool! Did I have red eyes? I had to check! I went inside, but the red eyed girl stopped me.  
"She met I Dun," she said with a sigh. I Dun? Who was that? Maybe he wanted to be friends! Kat came back followed by a blonde girl.   
"Oooh! Pretty, pretty!" The pretty girl gave me tea. Hey, I liked tea! Right? I drank it.   
"Unh... what a dream..." my vision was blurry. I sat up. I was on the couch in the front hall. "What happened?"  
"Well, Kurtis ran away and you blacked out from the awfulness of it all," Kat told me. Oh, phew. It was a dream. Kate smacked Kat on the head.  
"You met the school's happiest kid." Oh. It... wasn't a dream. Crap. That just happened.  
"Oh... Dunny...I thought that was a dream..." This was awkward.   
"Nope. But hey, you look hilarious when you're hyper," Zaydie laughed. Aw man, did she really have to say that? What a jerk. They laughed it off. I guess it was kind of funny, but god I was tired. How did I ever bounce down those stairs?  
"Sorry I didn't make it to lunch today," I said, trying to change the conversation.   
"It's alright. We're having dinner together, though. Don't go to sleep before 5!" Kate chimed, and she and her partner left. I wondered what kind of weapon Zaydie was. I was hoping to find out. Oh well.   
I studied until dinner, which I was grateful that Kate had made for us. I didn't see Sasha, I realized. Wait, where did Kat go, too? I'd completely forgotten about both of them. Maybe Death had called them. They still weren't back later, when I was finished showering and prepared to hit the hay. I was worried. Somehow, though, I managed to get to sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

### Kurtis

I sat at the top of the stairs at Shibusen, staring down at the city. Why did I suddenly lash out like that yesterday? I remembered getting frustrated when we tried resonating and firing an arrow. I thought it would be a lot easier to resonate with my best friend, someone I knew so well. So why didn't it work? And why did I get so unnaturally angry?! I swear I wasn't even in control for a while there. I just completely lost control. I sighed.   
I felt so bad about it, I didn't even want to face Nik. Would she even forgive me? I just hoped she'd understand. I sure didn’t understand. I was really thankful I was able to keep my mouth shut, I was so close to saying something I could never take back.   
Going on a walk alone helped a surprising amount, I remember my head clearing quickly. I only didn't turn back because of shame, and I guess because I was afraid I'd snap again. It was just... so out of character for me.  
I remember wondering what could've caused me to act like that. Maybe I wanted an excuse, because I couldn't handle the idea that it was ME acting like that. My mind immediately jumped to the black blood, but I haven't even suffered a scratch since I'd arrived. I was pretty sure it affected people differently anyways. What else could do that to me? It almost reminded me of the madness that the kishin gave off. Of course, the kishin was dead now, so that was out of the question.   
Maybe it was all me. As much as I hated to admit it, there really was nothing else to blame. Who knows, maybe the transition from our dimension to this one caused it. It did make me physically stronger, so what if it changed my mind around too? Or, who knows, it could've just been the stress of change getting to my head. Whatever the reason, I hoped it'd never happen again, and I hoped that Nik would forgive me.  
I threw a pebble down the stairs and watched it skip down the steps. The others were probably training right now, like we'd planned to. I wasn't in the mood to train today, especially after I'd run off yesterday.   
After that, I went back to the dorms, just to lay in bed for a while. I think I fell asleep, though I'm not sure. Bill and Mike had returned, looking tired out from the days training. It felt pretty awkward talking to them, but they never mentioned me blowing up. They told me training didn't go so well after I'd left, and Nik ran off too. Of course, that just made me worry about her more. I almost wanted to go back and apolo-  
"Excuse me," a voice came from behind, startling me. Death the Kid stood there, a concerned look on his face.  
"Yes?"  
"I'm looking for Nik, do you know where she is?" he asked me.  
"No, I haven't seen her since yesterday morning," I told him.  
"Aren't you her best friend?" he asked, almost as if he was accusing me. Maybe she told him about yesterday. I hoped not.  
"Yeah. But we had a bit of a... uh... fight."  
"Oh. That explains yesterday..."  
"What happened yesterday?"  
"She came into the Death Room to change her nickname. She looked sort of down. Something was bothering her," he said.  
"What did you need her for?"  
"I needed to ask her a question. It's fairly important. Do you know where I could find her? There's a chance someone could get hurt if I don't," he asked, looking worried now.  
"Sorry, but I don't know. She might be training right now, check the forest behind the girls’ dorms."  
"Thank you for your time. I hope you and her get over the fight, whatever it was about." With that, he pulled his skateboard out and hopped on, speeding towards the girls’ dorms.  
Back to sulking, it looked like. Tomorrow, I decided I'd apologize, and hope for the best. I wouldn't let myself lose control again.  
Out of nowhere, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I smiled to myself suddenly, not even bothering to look who's hand it was.   
She was my best friend, of course she'd understand and forgive me. I realized how puny my actual problem was. There was no reason to sulk over it! It'd blow over in a few days, our friendship could handle it!   
"You alright?" I heard a girl ask. I looked up and smiled.  
"Yeah, I'm alright." The girl behind me suddenly glared at the boy whose hand was on my back.  
"Dunny, you don’t need to cheer up every person we see who's sitting down." I recognized them; it was the same two who I'd seen outside of the spaghetti shop.  
Dunny, or so I assumed his name was, withdrew his hand from my back and laughed. He seemed to be so full of energy, almost bouncing in place. It was a funny sight, I had to chuckle to myself. He almost reminded me of Nik, the last time we gave her coffee. Literally. The last. Time. We wouldn’t make that mistake again.  
"Sorry about that," she apologized. "He can be a handful sometimes." I tried not to blush. I hoped she didn't notice me checking her out a few days ago, but in my defense, she was pretty good looking. I didn't want to say goodbye to her quite yet.  
"You said he can cheer people up?" I asked curiously.  
"Yeah, my brother has a really powerful wavelength; it cheers up anybody he touches. I'm just glad you didn't go crazy like some people. Yesterday, he shook hands with a girl, and she went absolutely nuts. She ended up skipping down the entire staircase and into the city, laughing the whole time. I had to calm them both down!" She laughed and held out her hand. "I'm Ida, by the way." Score.  
"I'm Kurtis," I said, and returned the handshake. "I should actually thank you, I was having sort of a rough day and I needed that." Why was I telling her this? I guess I hoped that confiding in her would bring her closer to me. Or maybe I just wanted to keep the conversation going.  
"Mind if I ask what was bugging you?" she asked, looking slightly concerned.  
"Well, see, I'm new here... I came with 4 of my friends, just a few days ago." As I explained, she sat down on the stairs next to me. Nice. Or, would be nice, if I didn't have to explain that I'd just thrown a temper tantrum in front of my best friend. "We were doing some training yesterday, and my best friend was my partner. I'm a meister, and she’s a weapon, and..."  
Ida cut me off. "Wait. Don't tell me. You... couldn't resonate?" Was she a psychic or something? I hoped she couldn't see what I thought about her...  
"Y-yeah actually. How did you...?"  
"Remember that girl I told you about who went nuts yesterday?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. I got it now.  
"You talked to her yesterday?"  
"Yeah. She seemed pretty bummed that you couldn't resonate properly. I myself am stumped. I've never, in all my life, NEVER, seen best friends unable to resonate. Except maybe, for Black*Star and Soul Eater. But those two are their own thing." She laughed again.  
"So you think there's something wrong with us then?"  
"Well it’s either that, or someone's messing with you," she chuckled, standing up. Dunny picked up the crayons he was using to decorate the stairs and got up to follow her. "In any case, see you at training tomorrow!"  
"Wait, training?" I asked, suddenly confused.  
"Yeah, I told your partner I'd help her out tomorrow to find out what's messing up your resonance. See you!"  
"Oh, well uhh... I guess I'll see you then!" I called as I watched her take off down the stairs with her brother. I was pretty glad I'd be seeing more of her around. I just hoped the others wouldn't catch me staring at her during training... they didn’t need to know about my new crush. Yet.  
I sat on the stairs for a few more minutes before finally deciding to go into town and see what jobs were open. I had no idea where the others were anyways, and I could always use the extra money. I headed back down the stairs and into town, straight towards the job offices, and managed to find a cleaning job for a local restaurant.  
"Just mop the floors and wipe the empty tables," the boss instructed me, handing me a bucket of soapy water, a mop and a cloth. "You can do this back room first; then when the place gets a little less crowded, you can clean out front."  
"Alright!" I agreed, plunging the mop into the soapy water. Was it really sanitary to clean the tables with the same water as I was using for the mop? I made a quick mental note to keep my food off the tables if I ever ate here.  
A good half hour of scrubbing was all it took to clean the back room, the room was fairly small and most of the mess was a couple of muddy footprints and a small puddle of mysterious liquid. Once everything was sparkling (or at least as clean as I could get it), I headed into the front room where my boss stood, keeping an eye on the employees. Was that... Nik heading out the door with Sasha and Kat? It was.  
"Hey," I called out to Nik, and she stopped and turned to me. She had a strange look on her face that I couldn't quite read. "Look, I'm rea-"  
"Back to work!" my boss interrupted suddenly. "I'm not paying you to chat you know."  
"See you at training tomorrow?" Sasha offered with a smile, cutting off Nik just as she opened her mouth. I just nodded. Nik remained silent and shot her a worried look, before smiling and waving bye. I returned the wave sheepishly, then got back to my work. Somehow, the main room's floor was a lot cleaner than the back rooms. Maybe it got cleaned more often or something. I finished up the mopping in good time, and went on to wiping the tables. I wet the cloth in the soapy water, which had turned a brownish-gray from the floors.  
"Hey!" The boss yelled suddenly. What was it this time? "You weren't actually thinking of using that to wipe the tables, were you? People eat off of those you know." He handed me a spray bottle and a new rag, and I returned to work, slightly relieved that the place was at least hygienic. I watched as a waitress collected a tip from a table. Nobody ever tips the janitor.  
The rest of the afternoon went by smoothly, clearing tables and emptying garbage bins. Just before my shift ended, he'd gotten me to wipe down the windows, and the place was practically sparkling by the time I had finished. "At least I got something accomplished today," I thought to myself as I collected my pay and thanked the owner. "And now I've got a bunch of spending money, too."  
I ran into town, half hoping to run into either Nik or Ida, but didn't see anyone I recognized around. With just the money I'd made from earlier, I was able to get myself a few sets of casual clothes, a new schoolbook and supplies, and a deck of cards to kill the time. When I'd saved up enough, I hoped to be able to get some electronics, but for now that was out of the question. It was fairly late by the time I finished shopping, and I had just enough money left over to get myself a late dinner. I decided on a hamburger place, where I sat alone with my thoughts.  
Did Ida hear every detail about what happened yesterday? She didn't mention my sudden outburst when I'd talked to her, so maybe Nik left that part out. Nik didn’t seem upset when I saw her earlier, but I didn't get to talk to her. Maybe she was more worried about us not being able to resonate. Maybe she even understood exactly how I felt when I left. I sure hoped so. Either way, it was really nice of Ida to offer to help us resonate properly. As a bonus, it was Ida teaching us how to. I smiled to myself. "Shut up, brain," I thought to myself, somehow managing to embarrass myself. I finished up my burger and walked back to the dorms.  
Bill and Mike were already at the dorms when I showed up. They were both reading, Bill a chapter book and Mike a manga. Books. That might've been smarter to get than a deck of cards. It could keep me entertained by myself for longer anyways.  
"Hey," Mike greeted as I shut the door behind me. Bill remained silent, too lost in his book to notice my presence.  
"Hi," I answered back, and began to unpack my things. I piled my school supplies by the textbook I was given and stuffed the clothes I'd gotten into some drawers. I leapt into bed and opened up the deck of cards. "Anyone up for some cards?" I asked.  
"Meh," Bill said, uninterested.  
"Naah," Mike said, flipping a page of his book. Looked like it was Solitaire night tonight.  
Maybe tomorrow I could play poker with them and win the books they bought. I laughed to myself. Nah. I'm not a gambling person. I'd feel bad about taking their books from them anyways; even if I won them fairly I'd probably end up giving them back. I managed to get quite a few games of solitaire in before Bill got tired and wanted to turn the lights out. It looked like Bills sleeping cycle was rubbing off on me, because I noticed I was pretty tired already too.   
I was pretty excited for tomorrow. I got to train with Ida! I tried thinking of ways to ask her to train with us again. Maybe I'd purposely fail so she had to come back again? No, that was dumb. I'd see how things went. I hoped Nik would forgive me. I had to come up with a good way to apologize. I thought back to what Ida told me. Best friends usually resonate naturally, so why did we mess up so bad? I guess I would find out tomorrow.


	9. Chapter 9

### Nik

For the first time since I'd arrived here, I woke up tired.  
"C'mon Snick, you only have half an hour for breakfast before training!" Kat shook my shoulders again.  
"I can eat in five," I mumbled... I hadn't slept well last night, I was so worried that in the middle of the night they would take Sasha. Finally Kat took my blanket. I glared at her and cuddled up into a ball. That is, until she started to lift the mattress sideways. I fell off. "You aren't supposed to be that strong yet," I complained, getting up from the floor.  
"Is it okay if we miss training today, actually?" Kat asked suddenly.  
"Eh, why?!"  
"Sasha signed us up for another mission today," she smiled sheepishly. Dang, at this rate, she'd be a death scythe before I even got half way!  
"Yeah, sure, I'll tell the others." She left and I looked over at Zaydie and Kate. What the-?! There were several thick ropes binding Kate to her bed. Zaydie sat up quite suddenly then, and got out of bed. She turned her left middle finger into a saw and began to hack at the ropes. I stared.  
"What do you want, newbie?" she glared at me. Kate opened an eyelid, saw me, and closed it. Or was that just me? Probably. Kate has blue eyes, not yellow. Kid's the one with yellow eyes. Although I guess the more accurate term was gold.  
"N-Nothing," I stammered, and left. It was probably fine. I hoped. I scarfed down some cereal and rushed outside before realizing I was still in my pajamas. I wasn't very fast at eating cereal, so I told Kate and Zaydie, who didn't seem fazed at all by what happened this morning, to let'em know I'd be a bit late and ran back to change. I was out of breath, but I actually managed to meet them in the forest before training started.  
Immediately, Kurtis started to apologize. I cut him off. "It's okay."  
"I know, but it was like, I don't know how to explain it, it just wasn't me."  
"Yeah, I had that feeling a while ago. But don't worry, it went away. But like, it was funny, cause if I hadn't had it I probably wouldn't be friends with these two," I nodded towards Kate and Zaydie.  
"Eh?" Zaydie asked. I suddenly saw Kid walking towards us from behind Kurtis.  
"Eh, lets just say... I didn't mean to ask about your eyes..." Kate's head snapped to Zaydie in astonishment. Ida hadn't shown up yet. My eyes were on Kid as he kept walking, but I still noticed Kate staring intently at Kurtis, who seemed confused by all the intent staring going on. He looked to see if he was wearing a dirty shirt or something.  
"His soul wavelength... it has holes in it," Kate gasped. Zaydie only grinned.  
"Here we go again."  
Her left pinky finger suddenly became a corkscrew. Now Kurtis began to look really worried.  
"Nik... what's going on?" I wasn't listening.  
"Well THAT explains why it hurt so much!" Kate went and tried to calm the near-freak-out-mode Kurtis down, and just then Kid reached the clearing.  
"Finally, found you,” he suddenly noticed the others. The hell? How could he not notice them before?  
Zaydie stuck her pinky- er... corkscrew?- into Kurtis's ear and I looked away. I didn't want to see this. But wait, what about the bug she would inevitably pull out? We wanted that, right? But she would just eat it again!   
I turned back and ignored Kid. Kat would have been disappointed, but the crush was the last thing on my mind. I saw the bug on her finger. Thing. Whatever it was at that point. Kurtis, holding his ear and looking really freaked out.  
"Nooo!!" I thought. Or did I say that? I didn't really know. I pushed Zaydie's arm away as she got ready to bite. Ah! No! That left her biting at... me! Was this the end? I closed my eyes but still held her arm away as I felt her lips on my neck.   
Wait, WHAT? I really didn't think she'd felt THAT way about me!! A moment later I felt my wet hair being spat out.  
"Blech! Your blood might be good, but your hair tastes awful!" She spat on the ground. Oh. She'd bitten my hair. Phew. That would have been awkward. I pulled the bloody bug off of her corkscrew finger and held it away from her as Kate escorted her a few paces away. Kid came to look.  
"A mantis. It fits the description of the other one." He looked to me, then Kurtis. "We'll need you to come to the Death room later, of course." I was still confused.  
"So why are you here, anyway?"  
"I came for a description of Sasha. There are many Sashas in the school, of course, so when we went to talk to her we weren't sure who to talk to. Or if you know it, a last name would also suffice."  
"Well, uh, she has black hair," I began. This was so not going to help with my dreams. "I think her eyes were... green... or brown?"  
"About this tall." Kurtis motioned with his hand. Kid sighed. I guess he was hoping for more descriptive information.  
"Um... how about we just bring her up when she gets back from her mission?" I asked, sensing his frustration.  
"That would be great." He spawned Beelzebub and hovered off. Ida came right as he left. Zaydie, not having to behave around Kid anymore, ate the bug right out of my hand! Ew! Zaydie slobber on my hand!! I shook my hand off and tried to dry it on the grass.   
Immediately, we began training. Bill and Mike were late, as they hadn't thought ahead to buy cereal or something for breakfast. I suspected Kurtis just wanted muffins again but they'd refused. In any case, this time Kurtis didn't let me fall to the ground, thankfully. It felt weird. When he went to pull the string, it didn't hurt at all, like last time.  
"I guess we figured out why you couldn't resonate," Kate beamed. Ida was chasing Dunny, who'd run off chasing a rabbit. So much for having her help. In any case, it took a little bit, but we were able to make an arrow! I was ecstatic. They looked tons different from the detailed arrows Sasha and Kat shot. Like... vector arrows. With a faded end.  
"Now, aim for this mark here." Ida said, poking a tree with a staff. Eh? When had she come back?! It was weird seeing her from my weapon form. It was like I was a couple feet smaller.   
A black mark appeared on the tree, and I heard laughing. So Dunny was the weapon of the two. A... what kind of staff was he, that he could burn a mark on a tree just like that? Scary.   
I felt an arrow appear from the wavelengths as Kurtis aimed. It missed the tree completely, and Zaydie had to duck so he didn't hit her.  
"I didn't think you could hit a target five feet away from where you were aiming," she grumbled angrily. I felt Kurtis's embarrassment. How weird! It was like we shared emotions sort of, but also not. I got the feeling that him missing had more to do with Ida. Somehow.   
In any case, he began to aim again, but I could already see he was going to miss. Oh well, that's what the training was for. Except... The arrow curved. He shot it, and I saw it was going to miss, and it curved! It didn't hit the tree, but I mean, still!  
"Hey, that's like Pit's bow from Super Smash Brothers Brawl!" Mike and Bill strolled in. Mike was admiring my weapon form. "It even has the curving arrows!"  
"So that's supposed to happen?" I asked. Mike nodded.  
"The only real difference is that you're green." I felt sort of an agreement with Kurtis, somehow without even asking or saying anything.  
"Can Pit's bow do this?" he asked, dividing me. Again, my soul felt split. Kate, Zaydie and Ida raised their eyebrows. I couldn't see Bill, but I suspected he might have as well. Mike shrugged.  
"Yep." I was disappointed. I was a video game character's weapon? That was messed up. Then again, I'm sure Pit didn't have a soul resonance with his weapon.  
"She splits in half?" Ida asked. Kate and Zaydie looked shocked, too. Oh man, I hadn't told them I could do this! Whoops.  
"I wonder... are you able to transform back when you're divided?" Kate asked, looking into my eyes. Wait, how'd she do that? My eyes could be anywhere! Scary...  
"I- I've never tried it..." I mumbled. Kurtis held his arms apart, separating my blades further. I concentrated back. How had I ever transformed back before? They never explained things like this before! I tried, I really did, but I couldn't transform back. "Put me back together!" I cried. I didn't like this! Kurtis obliged, and I transformed immediately. How did I do that? I just focused on me. But why was the image of me so fuzzy when my soul was separated?! I looked at my shoes.  
"Hey, Kate, do you even know anything about dividing weapons?" Zaydie asked. Maybe she was on my side. "Maybe she's not even supposed to be able to."  
"Well, no... I've never really seen a divisible weapon before."  
"Perhaps we could ask Lord Death about it?" Ida spoke up. She looked really happy. Oh yeah, she was resonating with Dunny.  
We decided we would ask about the dividing thing when we brought Sasha up. For the rest of the day, Bill practiced wielding Mike with Kate and Zaydie, while Ida and Dunny overlooked our firing practice. We were able to shoot pretty well by the end of the day, enough that we'd almost made up for the first failed practice. Bill had been pretty easy to resonate with, but he'd never really taken archery so he wasn't as used to holding a bow.  
"Alright, Sasha and Kat should be back by now," Kate said as we finally finished. We met them out front, where Kat was overjoyed. She'd gotten another pre-kishin soul! Sasha seemed concerned when we told her that we needed her to go up to the Death room with us, but she came. I hoped that was a good sign.   
I don't know how, but I think they saw us coming, because Kid met us out front and brought us to the room. Kurtis went in first, presumably to confirm their suspicions before they accused Sasha of anything. But wait, he hadn't touched Sasha at all! I was so happy. She couldn't have done it. She'd be cleared! When he came out, Kid looked thoughtful, and I went in, despite not being asked to.  
"Was she cleared?" I asked.  
"Yes. It appears she hasn't made any contact at all with your friend. That leaves us back where we started, though now we know it was a mantis. Is there anything else you needed?" Kid asked.  
"Well, yes, actually. Y'see, earlier today, when we were training, Kurtis separated my blades and stuff, and we decided we could try my transforming while they were divided. But..."  
"It didn't work?" Death said happily. Wow. I didn't know you could say something like that happily. But it was Death, so.   
"No, it didn’t." I agreed, despite this confusing thought racing through my head.  
"That's completely natural! It's especially rare for a weapon to be divided into two separate weapons, which makes the transformation process especially difficult. However, with practice, I'm sure you can do it!" I blinked. Okay. That made me feel better, I guess.  
"So... Where would I end up being, anyway?" I asked. It was something that had been bugging me. Did I always go to the left blade or something?  
"In between the blades, of course. Your soul has to become whole as fast as it can, and the fastest way is directly in between them. Keep this in mind if you ever use this tactic in battle." I nodded silently and left. Sasha spoke up as I entered the hall.  
"So, how about we celebrate on you guys resonating? I know a great ice cream place!"  
"But... I don't like ice cream..." Kurtis said. I'm not sure if that was true. But I know he was uncomfortable eating dairy, regardless of what his taste buds liked.  
"You can have a chocolate bar," I kidded him. We went to the ice cream shop, making good time on the stairs. They still felt super long, but I was getting farther and farther before I was out of breath. We enjoyed the ice cream. I got a bubble gum flavour, Kurtis got a dark chocolate bar, and the others got assorted flavours like strawberry and lime. We went off, heading towards the dorms. Ida and Dunny left us, heading towards their apartment. It was in a different direction, I guess. I was feeling really happy.   
Then the group of... I think they were drunks... stepped in front of us as we walked through an alleyway. Why did all the creepy stuff happen in an alleyway? Although I guess you don't just sneak up on someone in a pretty meadow.  
"Eh, just a group of traitors," Zaydie muttered. She transfo- what the hell?! A giant pocketknife? What kind of weapon was that? Kate held her like one would a teddy bear, though she didn't appear to struggle under any sort of weight. Mike and Kat transformed, Bill and Sasha grabbing them. I hope nobody would get hurt in this fight. I transformed and Kurtis grabbed me. Some of the guys had broken bottles and looked really serious. But still drunk.   
Oh no, what if they didn't leave us even with us being weapons?! Bill bopped one of them on the head with the flat of Mike's blade. Kat and Sasha shot a low-powered arrow and I felt Kurtis nock my bow to do the same. Kate flipped the blade into the main part so that she wouldn't cut any of them, and suddenly Zaydie shrunk to the size of a club. She bopped another one on the head. Soon the guys were running.  
"They didn't even have the usual fighting spirit of a traitor. They were just a bunch of drunks," Kate sighed. We all transformed back, except Kat. Sasha ran off after one of them.  
"Hey, where are you going?" I called out. They were running away! We didn't have to fight them! We chased after them to stop them, but they entered a forest. I wasn't sure if it was the same one as the one behind the girl's dorms. In any case, it slowed us down a lot, since there were so many of us. Kate somehow knew which way they'd gone. Zaydie began fidgeting.  
"Kate..." she mumbled. I was getting nervous. Zaydie never fidgeted. And she sounded... pathetic.  
"I know, Zaydie. But we can't catch her without my smell." I was confused. I know Kate sniffed the air more than a regular person, but just how good was her sense of smell? We came across a clearing and I bumped into Kate as she stopped suddenly.  
"Snick! We finished another mission!" I heard Kat from... Sasha jumped down from a tree, grinning.  
"My cover was about to be blown anyway. I'm lucky they didn't figure it out when Kurtis went in today. Tell me," she looked right at Kurtis. "Did you tell them I didn't touch you?" I didn't see what Kurtis's face showed, but I realised then that I had been wrong. She... she was the one who'd put the mantis in my head, in my best friend's head!  
"Kate." Zaydie sounded... scared?  
"She smells it, too, I see. The blood of an innocent." Sasha's usual smile was replaced by one of pure evil.  
"That's not the only smell around." Kate glared at her. "You reek of guilt, yourself. I can't believe I didn't catch on before." Sasha shot a quick arrow at Zaydie, but it narrowly missed, grazing her hair instead.  
"That should do it." Sasha grinned menacingly and darted away. The boys ran after her. I yelled that I would catch up, and for a second, they looked like they wanted to wait. I shooed them away and looked at Zaydie, who looked emotionless. Kate looked frantic.  
"Sorry," Zaydie mumbled, before falling to her knees and holding her head in her hands. She looked like she was struggling... but with what? Sasha! She'd shot a part of her soul in the arrow! That was how she'd gotten Kurtis, too! Kate looked at me with a look of sincere sadness.  
"Run," she whispered. I did. I ran and ran, not stopping when I heard Zaydie's scream, not stopping until I ran right into my own brother. We were at the edge of the forest, by the stairs of Shibusen.  
"W-where'd they go?" I asked. Bill shook his head.  
"We don't know. We lost them almost immediately, and followed their tracks here." Kurtis said. As much as I hated to be the one to bring it up, Death needed to know right away. I didn't say anything, just started running.  
I told them that they didn't need to come. They followed me wordlessly anyway, as I ran up the steps. I was out of breath, but I kept running until I ran right into Kid.  
"Ow," I held my knee, now surely scraped. "Sorry," I apologized, breathing heavily, as I watched him stand up. He brushed off his pants and held his hand out for me to stand up. I took it.  
"Why the rush?" he asked. The others explained for me, as I was still out of breath. I hadn't noticed Liz and Patty by him, but now they became guns and he put them in his pockets as preparations for the way down. I guess I could catch my breath later... I prepared to run after him, and it was clear the guys were going to come, too, but he asked them to stay and tell his father about what happened. I wasn't sure why he hadn't asked me to stay too. Regardless, he held out his hand after stepping on his board. At first I thought he wanted me to step on too, but then I realised the board would be much faster if I was a weapon. I transformed and he grabbed me, dividing me so he could hold me symmetrically. He zoomed down the stairs at record speed. If I had eyes they would have been tearing up.   
We found Kate near the bottom, in near tears. There was blood on her hands. She pointed wordlessly behind her, into the entrance that, from this angle, was almost invisible. We zoomed through the trees.   
Kid used his soul perception and soon found her, prepared to fight, just in case. Wait, was that why he brought me? But surely Liz and Patty would have been better. It was confusing.   
I could talk to him later about it, though, we had almost reached Zaydie. I saw her suddenly, as the board stopped. She was huddled beside a tree, and her blood-covered face was apathetic. She looked up sadly as Kid approached her.  
"It... it tasted... good." She looked back down. Her hands were covered in...   
We walked around the tree and found the body. As I'd thought, it was one of the drunks. I didn't look, I didn't want to see this. I suddenly wished Kid hadn't brought me. I didn't care if he liked me being symmetrical. You don't just see dead bodies in the UA dimension. And while yeah, we'd be doing some killing in the future, it would be the bad guys. And from what I'd watched, their bodies disappeared in black smoke.   
But this guy... Whether it was Zaydie or Sasha and Kat... no. Just Sasha. She'd obviously messed with Kat's mind, Kat would never do something like this. In any case, we walked away.   
Zaydie mindlessly followed. I took one look back at her and saw her eyes were, if possible, an even deeper red. We went slowly this time, back up to Shibusen. Kate joined us, looking at Zaydie. She turned away so she wouldn't break.   
It took forever to climb those stairs, since Zaydie and Kate were going at such a slow pace. I didn't like it. It gave me time to think. I tried to keep my mind blank, but I was never good at that stuff. I tried meditating once and couldn't stop thinking. It was weird, like a disease that wouldn't leave me alone. The only time I could ever really not think was when I was sleeping. Not dreaming, just... unconscious really.   
After a long time, we reached the top, where Death and the boys were waiting. Us girls transformed to human and we walked silently to the Death room. Nobody spoke for a while.  
"So I guess you'll finally get to go on your first mission, then?" Death said. How.... I just... this was a serious.... and.... but.... Mike grinned.  
"Let's do this." I looked at my friends, old and new. They had switched their solemn faces for determined ones. We would get our friend back, and we would make Sasha pay for what she'd done. We began to leave. I was the last to leave, when I felt a hand on my shoulder.  
"Hm?" I looked back to see Kid.  
"Be careful," he warned me, looking concerned. I nodded. This was a witch we were dealing with. And also, my best friend. I didn't know if Kat had realised what was going on, but we had to rescue her. Whatever happened. But... before we left, I needed to know something.  
"Why did you bring me?" I couldn't forget what we'd just done.  
"Other than Kate, you're the closest friend Zaydie has. If she'd done something to Kate, I thought you might be able to talk to her before I would have had to fight." I nodded. It made sense, since Zaydie seemed pretty anti-social, too.  
"See you," I said, knowing I might not. I joined my friends. We descended the stairs and entered the forest in the place we knew Sasha had exited. I looked to Kate, she seemed to be able to track things really well. She grinned back at me and glanced to Zaydie, who seemed to have recovered from her ordeal thing. She nodded. We waited for whatever was supposed to happen. It took a while. Zaydie checked her watch.  
"Shouldn't we be... going?" Kurtis said after a bit.  
"Just wait," Zaydie grumbled, staring at her watch. "Any minute now..." Suddenly, there was a flash, and Kate was... a... a wolf? I didn't know any other wolves who wouldn't attack me. Or that would randomly appear where Kate once stood. She scared me. Then again, that was normal. We followed her as she sniffed out Sasha's scent and began hunting.


	10. Chapter 10

### Kat

Let's start this from the beginning again. I woke up with a weird pain in my ear. Nygus was just entering the infirmary from somewhere. I really had no chance to resist. The voices didn't start until I wanted to transform. They were nice voices. They helped me. They told me some of the hard answers on the quiz.   
They even gave me fashion advice! Of course, I just went and chose whatever I wanted anyway. I didn't care who saw, that was what I wanted to wear. Whoever doesn't like it can go- the voices wouldn't let me finish. What was wrong with them, huh? But they got me through that quiz on the second day, too, so I guess I could deal with'em.  
"It was tough, but the voices in my head brought me through!" I hoped Nik would understand. Telling her outright in front of everyone would be... well. You just couldn't. But she didn't get it.  
"Kat, that's called thinking." Damn. I guess I joked too much about voices in my head back at home.   
They also told me to hang out with Sasha a ton. Like, what's wrong with hangin' with Snick, man? The first time I listened, and I went with Sasha, she was pretty nice. We talked about being partners. At one point she kind of brushed my hair behind my ears, which was seriously weird. But in a moment, the voices intensified.   
Hey, what's wrong with her? Was she the one who made the voices or something? I wanted to tell Snick about it, but every time I tried they made me space out or something. The hell? She's my friend, it'll be fine.   
The voices did other stuff too. They helped me resonate with Sasha. I didn't like it when we shot at Kurtis like that, though, that was rude! I mean, I'm pretty rude to him all the time, but it's not like I'm gonna shoot him in the head for fun! And she wouldn't even let me talk to Nik later about the whole thing. I mean, what kind of friend am I if I don't support my friend in a situation where she'd totally support me?!   
The next day we went on our first mission.  
"Sasha, I thought the souls we wanted were red." I was confused. The voices didn't stop, and whenever I told her about them, she just put her hand on my cheek and smiled and said... something. I always missed it, cause the voices got really loud then.  
"They are, but some souls camouflage themselves to look blue. It's our job to find those particular souls." Ah, I see. Made sense. Witches could use soul protect, so why couldn't the other evil things?   
Duh, because only witches have ma- the voices got loud again. I didn't know what they said. There were too many. I could never focus on just one. Unless they wanted to tell me something specific, but who knew when they were gonna do that?  
"How come I can't see through the disguise, but you can?"  
"Don't worry, I'll make it so you can, too." She was so nice to me. A great partner. But sometimes she was too nice. And other times she was too mean to my friends. Being a jerk to them was my job, cause they knew it was for fun then. But oh well.   
We did a couple missions and then went to the Death room for something. Who knows. We went for ice cream cause Nik resonated with Kurtis. That was good, right?   
No.   
Yes.   
No.   
Why wouldn't it be good?   
The voices said it wasn't.   
But we ate ice cream anyway.   
We didn't like the girl with red eyes. Her disguise was awful. We'd have to get rid of her soon.   
We were in an alley and then these drunks attacked us. They were easy to defeat. One of them had a disguise on!   
Chase him! Nik called after us, but I didn't hear her. It was her fault for not seeing through his disguise.  
No, it wasn't her fault. She didn't have Sasha.   
Yes, it was her fault. The voices were more insistent. We defeated the evil dude. I transformed to eat his soul, but Sasha told me to transform back, there were more coming. We hid in a tree to ambush them.   
Then I saw Snick! Oh no, she didn't know that the red eyed girl was evil! But I wasn't allowed to tell her. And when I wasn't allowed to tell her something, I just couldn't talk when I wanted to. So I got out another hidden message.  
"Snick! We finished another mission!" We jumped from the tree. Oops. So much for the ambush.  
"My cover was about to be blown, anyway," Sasha said. Oh yeah, they didn't like witches here. But Sasha was a good witch. So it was okay. I sort of had a sneaking suspicion, though, that- "I'm lucky they didn't figure it out when Kurtis went in today. Tell me, did you tell them I didn't touch you?" She had interrupted my thoughts. What was I saying?  
"Kate," the evil one spoke. Hah! She was scared! She should be, we were going to eat her soul!  
"She smells it too, I see. The blood of an innocent." An innocent? Why would there be-   
The voices stopped my thoughts, focusing only on that we should get the evil one.  
"That's not the only smell around. You reek of guilt, yourself. I can't believe I didn't catch on before." A blonde girl wearing a pink sweater growled at us. Was she trying to protect the red-eyed girl? Anyone who did that was surely evil, as well. Or so the voices said.   
But couldn't you defend something even if you didn't understand it? Wasn't it wrong to judge people like that?   
No, they told me. It wasn't wrong. I kept trying to resist them, to hold onto my morals. Sasha got tired of talking, so we shot at the evil girl. It missed her, but we cut some of her hair in the process. Next time we wouldn't miss.  
"That should do it." Wait, we were running? Oh, because we probably wouldn't want Snick to see us kill the girl. That would probably be pretty horrific for her. But why couldn't we just tell her she was evil? The boys chased after us, but Snickers stayed behind. We hid in a tree when we got real far from them. Sasha focused on something for a sec, and for a bit, the voices lessened. I'd begun to dislike them. I heard a scream suddenly.  
"Why are we running?" I demanded of my partner. Surely, by now Snick would have known to leave. Or wait, what if the girl had attacked her? We had to go save her!  
"Because the girl, with the red eyes, she's got your friends under mind control. They won't listen to us even if we talk to them. Instead, they'll likely attack us. They... know I'm a witch."  
"But you don't know Snick, or any of them! They wouldn't attack me just like that! They would understand that you're a nice witch, like I did!" The voices decided they had enough of me. They started yelling, hurting my head, even though I was transformed. It just... hurt.  
"Enough!" They stopped at Sasha's command. We started running again. I hated those voices. They never shut up. Not when we were crossing the desert, not when we ran through a jungle, not when we went through that river, not ever it seemed. A couple miles past the river we stopped in a cave and slept for the night. In the morning we ate some weird stew she'd made and then began again, until we reached a castle hidden among the shrubbery and rocks. It felt eerie inside.  
"What's gonna happen?" I asked. It was clear she was in control. Every time I did something she didn't like, the voices got louder. She usually made them stop after a few seconds. She smiled as I asked the question.  
"We're going to be staying here for a little while, until I can think of a way to help your friends." She didn't sound like she wanted to help them. Was she really such a nice person?   
Of course. She had wanted to save them, but if we'd tried to save them then, then they'd have attacked us, as they were under mind control.   
But they'd looked totally normal! I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that they were rea- ow! Make them stop! I transformed to human again, and put my hands over my ears.  
"Stop it, you fu-" Sasha cut me off as I was about to say a rather rude word.  
"Enough." So simple. I'd tried saying it once, when they got loud, but they wouldn't listen to me. "Why do you continue to think such thoughts?" I realized it then. How had she known what I was thinking? She controlled them. I'd always assumed she made them quiet because she was magic, but the thing was, they were only loud because she wanted them to be!   
This chick wasn't my friend, she was my enemy! I grinned at this new knowledge.  
"Cause it looks like my friends aren't the ones under mind control." Bingo. Her eyes widened. Then she smiled that creepy little smile. How had I thought that it looked naïve?  
"It doesn't matter, Katherine. I have enough mantises in your head to get me through this." I glared.  
"Don't call me Katherine."  
"Oh? Do you have something against the name?"  
"My name. Is. Kat." I was really beginning to hate this bi-

### Nik

Nik here. Watch your language, Kat, there might be kids reading!

### Kat

Out of my section, Nik! Be glad I've held my tongue this far in!

In any case, she just grinned at me like I was a cute little puppy and knew nothing. I looked around for the exit, prepared to walk out. But of course, she still needed me. So like the coward I knew she was, she sat back and let her creepy little bugs do the work. I stood up straighter, and my face showed no emotion. But it wasn't me moving. I struggled to move even my finger. What was this? Before, only my head was affected by these things! I managed to get my mouth moving long enough for just a few choice words.  
"You cowardly b-" again I was cut off, though this time by my own mouth.  
"Now, now, Katherine. Do you really think it's okay to talk to your partner like that? By the way," she came close and seemed to read my thoughts. "Don't worry about your friends. That Kate girl might be a wolf, but even a wolf can't track a scent across a raging river. And even if they do manage to come, I've prepared for them. Would you like to see?" My head nodded mindlessly along. Of course, she was doing that. She was messed in the head. Even more messed than me!   
We walked to the entrance where we'd come in. "It's quite simple, really. I almost wish it had more action, but I suppose you can't have everything. There's only one way into this castle. And since we're inside, I can safely activate the trap without worry. They'll fall into a pit. Of course, they won't die or anything. I only want them injured enough that they won't run." She pressed some keys in a pad on the wall and I saw a hole - a freaking huge hole, I might add - appear in the floor. I looked down, still not of my own free will, of course. Anyone who went into that hole would surely break their legs. I felt a surge of anger as she closed the hole. The exit was right there!   
Sasha laughed evilly and we walked back to some sort of bedroom. "This is where you'll stay while we wait for them to come." Soon, I knew, I'd be able to overpower these stupid bugs. If I just kept fighting... She seemed to sense it, though. Of course, they were a part of her soul! She put her finger by my ear, still smiling. The smile soon turned to a bored but cruel expression. "Make her weak." I felt the stream of her mantises infect me like a disease. And with that, she left me to the voices.


	11. Chapter 11

### Kurtis

  
I wasn't exactly sure what was going on. Today was a big jumble for me. I had some kind of insect painfully extracted from my ear, I was questioned by Death, we got into a fight with a few drunks, and one of my friends was kidnapped or... something. At least I was finally seeing action I guess. Not exactly the kind of thing I had in mind. It's a lot different when you're the one whose friends' lives are on the line.  
Right now, I was following a wolf through the desert on a wild goose chase for Kat. It wasn't just any wolf though, it was Kate. I guess she was a werewolf or something, which would explain her constant sniffing. I also had a strong suspicion that Zaydie was a vampire, because of her blood red eyes, pale skin, and how she ate the blood covered insect that came out of my ear. It was either that, or she was one really strange girl. I was also pretty sure something happened with her right after Sasha made her getaway, she came back bloody and somber looking. I wasn't sure I wanted to know the details.  
So there we were, running after a werewolf through the desert, tracking a witch that stole our friend. Kate held a good pace, her wolf like body much more agile than the rest of ours. I was keeping up well, at least compared to the rest of the group. We had to stop eventually, when the others began getting too tired to go on. I guess Kate forgot we weren't all long distance runners.  
After a short break to catch our breaths, we continued, walking this time. We travelled in silence, none of us with anything to say. I wondered if any of us had a plan, or if we were just going to wing it. Would we even stand a chance against her? I'd just learned how to use Nik's bow form properly a few hours ago, and Bill and Mike had no more experience. At least Zaydie and Kate could fight, but were they strong enough to fight Sasha? Who really knew.  
The moon shone bright as we went on, and reluctantly pushed forward. I'd drained my water bottle already, and I suspected the others had as well.  
We began to approach a jungle-or what I assumed was a jungle, it was a bit hard to tell in the dark. It was still a fair distance away, probably another hour or so of walking before we reached it. It looked like it would be sunrise (or whatever the sun did in this dimension, I still wasn’t 100% sure) within a few hours.  
"I think we should stop," Nik complained with a pant. "I'm starting to hallucinate."  
"What do you see?" Zaydie asked her, sounding slightly concerned. She didn't seem very tired at all. In fact, I didn't even hear her breathing heavy this whole time. Weird.  
"I see... a jungle, or something. Up ahead."  
"What, have you never seen a jungle in a desert before?"  
"N...no?" Nik responded, sounding a bit confused. Zaydie just smiled to her and pulled out her water bottle. Or... what looked like a water bottle. I moved slightly closer to her to investigate, but not too close that she'd notice. It may have just been the dim lighting, but I could swear that there was a reddish liquid in the bottle. Either she was drinking Kool-Aid, or my suspicions were right.  
Through the exhaustion, we pressed on. It was a bit of a weird mix, feeling exhausted both physically and mentally. It made me want to just fall to the ground and lay there. I only kept going because Kat had been taken, and besides, nobody else was complaining. They probably felt just as tired, if not more. I guess this was our first real mission, wasn’t it? I wondered how often our future missions would include hours of walking, maybe even through worse conditions than this. Would we even have another mission? How many people are killed on their first mission, especially if we don't know exactly what we're up against?  
Suddenly, I felt afraid. Afraid we might not ever return. Everything that had happened in the last few hours felt so... unreal. It had almost been like I was on autopilot, just going through the motions and following along. It just never clicked that our lives were on the line.  
By the time we arrived at the jungle entrance, the first signs of morning were arriving. Good, because it would be impossible to see in the jungle without sun. We didn't get very far into the jungle before I heard Kate suggest we rest. Strange, I didn't think she could talk when she was a wolf. Oh wait, she wasn't a wolf anymore. I guess she transformed back when the sun rose.  
"By the way," Kate mentioned, looking at Nik. "This is a magical oasis. Jungles aren't normally in the middle of a desert."  
"Oh. That makes sense I guess," Nik said dazedly. She looked horrible, as though she missed a night of sleep and had been walking through a desert all night or something. I probably looked the same.  
"Anyways, we're resting here for a few hours. Find a nice spot to sleep," Kate said, with a yawn. I didn't even argue that it was morning and we'd missed our chance to sleep last night. I was too tired to care.  
I was also too tired to worry about sleeping by a vampire. She could suck my blood for all I cared, as long as I got to rest. I took a few steps towards a shaded area, collapsed on the spot and closed my eyes. I fell asleep within moments. It was a very restless sleep, the ground was uncomfortable and I didn’t have a blanket or pillow to snuggle up in, and I woke up more than once during the sleep, but it was better than nothing.  
I felt a sharp pain in my ribs. My eyes shot open and I was staring at somebody's black shoe. "Wake up, it's time for food!" Zaydie commanded, and brought her foot back to kick me again.  
"Yeah, yeah, I'm up." I grumbled, standing up groggily. I felt for bite marks on my neck, but I didn't feel anything. I began to feel sorry for Nik and Kat, they had to share a dorm room with her.  
Our lunch, or rather after-lunch snack, consisted of a few fish Kate managed to catch out of a nearby river. Nik, disliking fish, had eaten most of the berries off of a berry bush, so she was finished eating before the rest of us.  
"Uhh, shouldn’t we cook the fish first?" I asked as Kate placed a few medium sized fish onto a rock.  
"Yeah, we'll make a small campfire to cook them," she answered. Good, I didn’t really like sushi. I found myself wondering how we were supposed to start a fire without any matches, a lighter or even flint.  
"It wouldn’t surprise me if Zaydie could just glare at a pile of sticks to make a fire..." Nik whispered to me, as if reading my mind. I couldn’t help but laugh.  
"Blondie! Go get us some wood," Kate ordered suddenly.  
"What?! Why me?!"  
"Cause you already ate today."  
"Yeah, berries," Nik muttered, popping one into her mouth.  
"Hey, I offered you fish."  
"And I still politely refuse," Nik said, wandering off to find wood. I guess she really hated fish. I knew Bill and Mike didn’t like fish, but they still said okay to it.  
Nik returned with a small bundle of sticks and wood, probably enough to start a small fire. She placed it in the makeshift fire pit we'd made, and Zaydie knelt down beside the pit. She wasn't actually going to make a fire by glaring at it, was she? Nik shot me a grin and nodded her head towards Zaydie. I tried my hardest not to laugh.  
Zaydie stuck her middle finger up to the fire, confusing me even more. Suddenly, that finger turned into a saw-like tool, with a file and what looked like a bit of flint on an edge. She struck it a few times with a rock before the sparks caught the wood on fire. After adding a few larger pieces of wood to the fire, it seemed large enough to cook on.  
I found myself wondering how we'd cook the fish, we didn't exactly have something to put the fish on. My question was answered when Kate speared one of the fish with a stick and began roasting it like a hot dog. The rest of us copied her, except Nik, who remained silent with a slight look of disgust on her face.  
"Let’s start moving again," Kate suggested when we'd all finished cooking our fish. "We can walk and eat."  
Neither Bill nor Mike ate much of their fish, but I had managed to finish most of mine. It was poorly cooked and there were little bones everywhere, so it soon became hard to eat. We eventually got to a river and threw what was left of our meals back into it for the fish to finish off.  
"Where now?" Mike asked, as we stood on the riverbed. He had remained quiet for the most part during the trip.  
"Don’t know... the trail goes cold here," Kate said.  
"So what, do we turn back?" Bill asked her. He seemed grumpy that he'd stayed up all night and had to eat fish.  
Kate didn't respond. Instead, Zaydie stepped forwards, standing beside Kate. Zaydie transformed into a giant pocketknife, and Kate caught her, holding Zaydie in front of her. "Soul resonance!" they yelled, and began glowing. "Bloodhound!" They seemed to glow brighter, and Kate turned and smiled. "Come on, let's go." She sniffed at the air and immediately set off across the river.  
We followed her through the river, relieved to find it was fairly shallow. I began to feel nervous again. The fight was close, I could feel it. Kate tracked Sasha's invisible trail deep into the jungle, where the plants began to get thicker. I swear, without Kate we would be hopelessly lost. We pushed through the foliage and popped out in a small clearing. "We're close." Kate muttered. "Not far now. Everyone ready?"  
"Yep." Nik answered. She looked determined. The rest of us stayed quiet. We pushed through one more thick spot, and popped out in another clearing.  
"Whoa. Is that it?" Mike asked. Slightly hidden by some trees and rocks, an old looking castle stood in the jungle. Zaydie transformed back and they stopped glowing.  
"She's in that castle. We all go in, Kate and I will fight Sasha since we have the most experience." Zaydie commanded. "You four try to rescue Kat, jump in if we ever look like we're in trouble. Now, she might be using Kat as a weapon. In that case, we have no choice but to fight her directly. Alright? Let’s go."  
The weapons transformed, and we slowly approached the entrance of the rugged castle. I could swear my heart was beating out of my chest. This was it. Suddenly, the ground moved! The floor opened up underneath us, exposing a pit probably 30 feet into the ground. Unable to move on time, we all fell in. "Fire at the roof!" I heard Zaydie bark from somewhere. I quickly shot the bow Nik had transformed into at the ceiling above, and a glowing arrow of energy pierced the ceiling. We both figured out what Zaydie wanted us to do. A thin rope of green soul energy ran from the arrow to Nik, and our fall was stopped. There we hung, probably 10 feet off the ground, the glowing green beam holding us up.  
"Kurtis.... I can't... hold-" I felt it too. Nik wasn't strong enough to hold us like this. The rope snapped suddenly, and we landed at the bottom. A pain shot from my left ankle, and I prayed it hadn't broken. The others seemed fine, Bill held his arm gingerly but was very much alive. Zaydie grabbed Kate and managed to plunge her tools in the wall, slowing their descent. Kate grabbed Mike, whom had been held by Bill.  
"Lord Death was right..." Kate muttered. "She can't- or won't- fight us head on."  
"How do we get out of here?" I asked, as the weapons transformed back to humans.  
"No, back to weapon!" Zaydie shouted as the roof suddenly closed. Why would she want the weapons to turn back? I heard a hiss- was that some kind of gas?! I got it now. Weapons didn't have to breathe. I was helpless, my only hope was that the gas wouldn't kill me. I couldn't see in the dark, but I heard someone hit the ground to the left of me.  
"What do we do?!" I demanded, trying to hold the small breath I managed to take.  
"Nothing we can do. Just hope for the best. The weapons will figure something out." Kate assured me, and I heard her fall to the ground too. My lungs started to burn, I needed to take a breath. I couldn't help it anymore. I let in a gasp of air, which tasted slightly sweet, and immediately felt dizzy.  
"Bye... guys...." I managed to whisper as everything faded away.


	12. Chapter 12

### Nik

The weapons will figure something out? Seriously?! What the heck were we supposed to do? We couldn't transform to human, we'd end up fainting the same way the others had! I heard a clatter as Mike fell. Wait, hadn't he been dropped already?  
"Ow! Watch what you're doing!" He retorted.  
"Sorry, didn't know we weren't compatible." Zaydie muttered. Oh my gosh. How was she-? It clicked right then. I mean, I knew she was a vampire. You'd have to be an idiot not to figure it out after that whole freak out thing in the forest. But I'd forgotten, I guess she didn't need to breathe. Handy. I felt her grab my handle and my string glowed once more. Finally, some light! We began searching for a way out and found a door that blended perfectly with the wall. If we'd had the light from above, we wouldn't have found it. But my light- wait. How was I glowing, anyway? Zaydie scared the crap out of me!  
"Uh, not to be ungrateful or anything, but how are we compatible?! You creep me out even more than starfish!" I said. There was an echo in the room.  
"Um. What's wrong with starfish?"  
"Just... the way they reproduce... it creeps me out."  
"Reproduction... That was... grade 9 science, right? That was a while ago. Hmm... Starfish, starfish. Are we talking sexually or asexually?"  
"I thought you said you were 15!" I couldn't believe this. Grade 9 should have been just last year for her! Although, she was a second year at Shibusen, so... wait, that meant she'd never had grade 9 science anyway!  
"Yeah... my body is. Mentally I'm about 17. My parents don't even know I still go to school," she laughed. "They think I'm a flunked dropout."  
"That's.... uh. Right. So again, how are we compatible?!" If I was human I would have glared at her. Slightly. This was the first she'd ever talked about her past. Her parents didn't know she was a weapon. They didn't keep in touch? Weren't they worried?  
"Normally you being creeped would definitely mess with the resonance, but you've got a strong sense of loyalty."  
"You don't strike me as the loyal-compatible type."  
"Ah, but you've forgotten who my partner is. Miss Kate, here, also has a strong sense of loyalty. So, I pair up well with people who have strong senses of loyalty. It doesn't really matter who they're loyal to, luckily. Also..." she trailed off. I waited, but she didn't say anything.  
"What is it?" I'd almost forgotten; my own little brother!  
"I'm not sure if it's just me, but it seems that you have an easy-to-wield wavelength. You're compatible with pretty much anybody."  
"Probably just you." I muttered. But maybe I was easy to wield. I just, I don't know, the thought that just anybody could pick me up as a weapon didn't make me feel very special. During our talk, Zaydie had been picking the lock on the door with her many finger-tools. The door cracked open, slightly, and we began to leave. "Wait, what about Mike?" I demanded.  
"I can barely pick him up! What do you want me to do?!" The door was opened completely now. Fresh air blew in. I transformed to human, took a deep breath, and ran in. I felt a cool resonance between my brother and I. Could I really just resonate really well? I was running back, almost out of breath. "Idiot." Zaydie, I guess, didn't think we needed Mike. But I wasn't going to leave him in a room with only unconscious people. Mike stayed a scythe, so I kept wielding him. We were in a corridor with one door at the end.  
"How come nobody's around?" I asked.  
"She doesn’t want a fight. I suspect if I were a normal human this would have been much easier for her. Both of you transform. This is your first mission and I've seen you train. It'll be easier if I do the fighting." Like army troops, we obeyed our commander.  
"What about the others?" I wondered aloud.  
"They'll be much heavier than your brother, and to be completely honest, we don't even know the way out. We'll find it, and then come back for them." We reached the door at the end and it opened easily. An alarm went off, though, and I heard grates falling. We turned and saw that the room we'd come from had been blocked off. We kept going forward, with no other direction to go. Soon we came to another grated, and presumably locked, door. Sasha was on the other end of it, grinning evilly.  
"Welcome to my home." We shot a quick burst at her, but of course she expected it and- what the hell?! The bars uncurled like a tape measure and we faced a metal wall. Which absorbed our arrow. *Sigh* They quickly furled up again.  
"Every time they sense high powered wavelengths they close up. Aren't they lovely?" Was this chick rich? What kind of technology was this?! The big bosses always seemed to have an endless supply of cool stuff, while the protagonists always had to work and train and buy stuff. But still, the good guys always win in the end. We'd figure out how to get out. And we wouldn't even use a walkthrough! Zaydie split me in half. It was kind of eerie, but I tried not to be creeped out much, because I figured that would mess with the resonance. For Kat, I told myself. Like Sasha said, the wall unfurled once more, as she brought one of my blades closer. But it seemed hesitant, like it wasn’t sure if this was enough soul power to count it as dangerous. "Well, let me know when you wanna surrender," Sasha chimed as Zaydie stepped back once more. She skipped off. Damn, and she wasn't even armed. Zaydie threw one of my blades at her, and it barely missed her head. I literally felt myself cutting her hair. And then become embedded into the wall. Sasha's eyes widened and ran, as Zaydie still had the other half of me. This felt really weird. Wait. Wait, wait, wait. I couldn't transform when divided yet!  
"Transform." Zaydie commanded, almost reading my mind, I swear!  
"I can't!" I said. I had been trying already. Then I felt something in my left half, where Zaydie held me. I was going to be able to do it, maybe! But no, apparently not, as Zaydie's concentration broke suddenly by the bars unfurling once more.  
"Quickly!" She urged, but I just couldn't do it! What happened to the good guys always winning? Sasha came back in and I forced myself to look serious.  
"You can't transform when divided." I wasn't sure if it was a question, statement, or what. She sneered at me. "That's just perfect." She reached to grab my handle, to pull me out of the wall. I focused all my energy on rejecting her. In the end, I think Zaydie helped, too. She couldn't grab me. I grinned.  
"And you can't touch me." But Sasha couldn't just leave me here, when I might transform at any moment. Well. I hoped. I got the feeling she didn't really have the same ideas about my being able to transform. A moment later, Kat walked in. Her face was expressionless. I wanted to scream at her, to tell her to run away, but by the face she made, I knew she was too far gone. She might not even hear me. She grabbed my handle, not flinching even when I tried to reject her. I guess Ida was right, it's near impossible for best friends not to resonate. What was once my best advantage was now my enemy.  
"Kat... if you can hear me... we're gonna get you out of here, okay?" She made no response, and merely followed Sasha out of the room. I felt the half of me with Zaydie still furiously struggling and stabbing the metal bar. But it wasn't breaking. Or wait... No, it was giving slightly. I focused my thoughts on talking to Zaydie. "I'll keep you updated on what goes on here." She nodded, having put her mistake behind her. Or maybe she just didn't think it was a mistake. That would have been heartless. But then again, her heart didn't exactly beat. Wait, that had nothing to do with it! I felt weaker with every step Kat took, dividing my soul more and more. I wondered if there was a limit to this thing. What if I died?! Was that possible? I never thought as a weapon, that there would be much danger to me. The only thing that's ever been able to hurt a weapon before, as I recalled, was the black blood, and that was gone. I think. We never did clarify the details about what really happened. I was put into a small box. They really didn't think much of me in this state. I couldn't see much of anything. We walked a bit more, and then I was put down. Somewhere. Zaydie kept stabbing the metal. I felt it give slightly.  
"You feel that?" she grinned at me. I nodded. It was hard to focus completely on one half of me. I was too far apart. The box opened and I found myself in a dimly lit room. I saw a canopy from a bed above me, and the box was lifted quite abruptly. I was brought under the bed and the box flipped.  
"You know, there's still a person in here." I grumbled.  
"Sorry. I had to keep up the act. I can't leave this place." Kat sounded pathetic. I wasn't sure what to think. Was she really okay? I decided to try to think of a way to test her. I wasn’t sure if Sasha had access to her memories, but there's no way she could copy her personality.  
"When I say..." I tried to think of something.  
"What?"  
"Okay, to prove you're really Kat, I want you do respond to my next sentence, immediately." But what would my next sentence be? "Explain your nickname for Kurtis."  
"My nickname for Kurtis?" she looked a little flustered. I grinned to myself. Or would have, if I had a mouth. Wait, I sort of did. It was really faded, though, since my soul was split. "Kass. A mix of Kurtis and ass." It had taken too long for her to reply, though. That was something Kat would have easily known, but Sasha had to search for the memory of when she'd made the nickname.  
"Can I ask you something...?" I tried to sound sad or weak or something. Let Sasha have one last bit of fun before I mentally punch her ego.  
"You know you can, Snick." Sure, it was Kat's mouth and Kat's voice, but it was Sasha's bidding.  
"Give me my friend back," I hissed. Kat frowned. I could tell she wasn't sure whether to keep up the act or not, but she eventually realized I knew. She picked me up and put me back in the box, doing something weird with her thumb at my connection piece… It was dark in here. But I was put in right in time for me to focus on my other half, which had just broken the grate. Maybe the bad guys don't get quite all the technology, cause no alarms went off or anything. I wanted Zaydie to come and help me, I could guide her by telling her when my soul got stronger or weaker, but she seemed to realize that if she left she might be ditching the others forever. She rushed back to the other room and started on that door. I realized my brother was helping too, with a partially transformed blade for an arm. "Give me to my brother." I told her. My bond was stronger and we weren't fighting tactfully anymore. Mike now used both blades and Zaydie made... a lot of partial transformations. I was jealous for a second. Her right arm from the elbow down was a blade, and her left fingers were all assorted tools. The thumb was a bottle opener, the index finger a screwdriver. Her middle finger was a saw with a nail file on one side and flint on the other, and her ring finger was a pair of scissors. Her pinky was a corkscrew. It didn't take long before the door was broken, and the others were dragged out, by Zaydie, since she wasn't sure if there was still gas in there. The others soon revived and we all went to our respective partners. I guess Kurtis and I, and Bill and Mike, were officially partners. They started out, and for some reason Kurtis didn't seem very well. Only half of me was with him and I couldn't figure out what was wrong with him because I was still really weak from being so far from each half. They made slow progress, in any case, but halfway through my directions, Kat spoke up again.  
"Bye, Snick. It seems there're too many of you guys for Sasha's liking." She stood and left, or at least I heard her footsteps fade away. Maybe it was a charade, so I would tell my friends they didn't have to be on their guard. But when they finally came, Kat was gone. We debated going after them. I really wanted to. The good guys never lost.  
"Much as I wanna kick that girl's butt, we're lucky she didn't manage to infect the meisters of us." Zaydie deadened my spirits.  
"But she won't have time to place traps this time!" I protested. I couldn't, wouldn't just leave Kat like this! Kurtis tried to put me back together, but I got a shock when he couldn't.  
"Kate, did Sasha get anything into me?" he asked. But she hadn't. Instead, there was something blocking the connection piece in me. It was jammed; Zaydie couldn't even get it out with her corkscrew.  
"It doesn't matter," I said. "I'll just stick with being blades until we rescue Kat, and then we can have Lord Death look." But Kate shook her head.  
"She probably knew you'd do that. There's a poison in this one, if we don't get you back by tomorrow or soon after, you'll fall into a coma, and slowly die." I couldn't believe it. We were so close! We couldn't turn back! I felt tears well up in my non-visible eyes.  
"But we can't just leave her! You guys, at least, can chase her, right?"  
"No, Nik. The fastest way to get you back is when I become a wolf in a few hours, and without my smell we can't find her again. We'll come back," she promised me. But by then I knew, it would be too late. I resigned myself to silence. If only I could just transform when divided... but I couldn't. It was too hard. Even when Zaydie tried to help me. When night fell, even though we were all hungry for some food, Kate and I departed without. We made extremely good time, since we didn't have to wait for the others. She held both pieces, of course, since we weren't sure it was such a good idea for only half of me to be at Shibusen while my other half was across a freaking desert. Still a wolf, she ran up the steps. She had great agility and stamina. We finally got to the Death room, where Death and Spirit were, as usual. Kate transformed, so I knew the night was officially over.  
"What's wrong?" Spirit asked as I fell to the ground with a clatter. They both stepped in for a closer look.  
"She's been infected with... something." Kate told them. "Can you help her?" They thought for a moment. I was picked up and studied by Spirit. Wait, I could resonate with Spirit? Un. Real.  
"Bring her to Stein..." he said in a low voice. She grabbed me once again and ran back, down the stairs, towards the patchwork factory where Stein lived. I felt a resonation between Kate, too. Wow, I really could resonate with practically everyone. We arrived really quickly, Kate somehow not tired even after running literally all night. We got there and the door opened before she even knocked. I guess they'd told him we were coming. I truly felt weak. Even when I was right next to my other half, I felt like I was fading... fading...  
"Save Kat..." I mumbled to Kate before I couldn't speak anymore. Everything was going fuzzy, Stein was bringing me somewhere. Somewhere.... I couldn't tell where.  
"Hold on," he told me. I tried, but everything was getting darker.  
"Where're the lights?" I asked, but it was mumbled. Didn't they get brighter in an operation room? I could sense Stein, he was worried about me, even more so when I asked about the lights. Did he even know I was one of his students? Maybe. The lights got dimmer and dimmer. Finally, I couldn't hold on anymore. I fell into the darkness.


	13. Chapter 13

### Kurtis

Night fell, and Kate transformed into a werewolf again, to transport Nik back to Shibusen. Zaydie went off into the night looking for food, and the rest of the group stayed behind at the castle, in hope that Kate would return soon and be able to track Sasha again. If Kate didn't come back for whatever reason, our plan to rest at the castle until I was able to walk, and then return to Shibusen. There wasn't much else we could do. Anyways, even if we wanted to go back now, I would be too slow with my hurt ankle. It had started to swell up now, and I had to lean on Bill to get around anywhere. I had been lying in the only bed in the castle when Zaydie finally returned with our late dinner. Bill helped me up and I used him as my personal walking stick to get into the kitchen.  
"So what's for dinner?" I asked as Bill helped me stumble into the kitchen.  
"Meat." She replied. Meat? What kind of meat? I decided it was better not to ask. I sat down at the kitchen table, waiting for my mystery meat dinner to be ready. She barely even seared the edges of the first chunk of meat before placing it on the table by me. Finally! Someone who knows how to cook meat for me! I like my meat as rare as possible, rare enough that even asking for blue rare is sometimes overcooked. Lacking any utensils, I grabbed it with my bare hands and took a bite. How did she even know I liked it like this? I didn't bother to ask, I was too starving to care. It tasted good, almost like pork.  
"What the hell are you doing?!" Zaydie yelled suddenly. It took me a second to realize she was shouting at me.  
"Uh... eating dinner?" I was confused. Did I do something wrong?  
"That was supposed to be MY dinner, idiot." She glared at me for a second, and then held up a well-cooked piece of meat. "This was gonna be yours."  
"Oh, sorry." I apologized. "You can give that one to Bill."  
"Whatever." She replied, tossing another slab onto the grill. Once again, she barely seared the edges before taking it off. "Hey, princess." I looked up. Did she just call me princess? "You've got an effed up taste in meat."  
"Look who's talking." I retorted. Maybe I shouldn't have said that...  
"Yeah, well mine's by forced habit." There. Either vampire or horrible parenting. Or both. "Anyways, if we’re going to have the energy to fight Sasha when Kate gets back, we ought to hit the hay right about now."  
"But I'm not done eating." Bill complained.  
"I haven't even got my dinner yet!" Mike protested.  
"Well hurry up and eat then!" She threw the last slab of meat onto Mikes plate and sunk her fangs into her own. Or, what I assumed were fangs, I didn't get a good enough look. One day, I'd get enough proof; then I'd tell the others all about it. We rushed through our meal, me finishing first, and I limped down the hallway and into my bed. I collapsed on it, not even bothering to pull the sheets over my tired body. I heard someone walk in.  
"Off the bed." Zaydie commanded. I looked up at her. She was wearing... pajamas? She had navy blue boxers and a white t-shirt. How did she manage to find pajamas in this place? "Get... off... the... bed." She repeated. "That easier to understand?"  
"Why do you get the bed, I'm the one with the bad ankle." I groaned. I didn't want to sleep on the floor. I seriously couldn't believe this was the only bed in the whole castle. Didn't Sasha sleep, too?  
"No. You sleep on the floor. You can use a stool to raise your sprained ankle." She ordered.  
"But couldn't I-"  
"No." I decided it was best not to argue. I got out of bed and flopped to the floor. At least it was carpeted. I half expected her to kick me out of the room too; then I'd have to sleep on stone. Luckily, she didn’t, and instead kicked a stool over to me. "If it’s sprained, you should keep it elevated." I still think I deserved the bed though.  
"Shouldn't you find a coffin or something to sleep in?" I muttered to myself.  
"Already looked." She answered. How did she hear me? I thought I said it quietly enough that she couldn't hear! That was some inhuman hearing...  
"Aww, I wanted the bed." Bill said as he entered the room.  
"Nope. You get the floor, like me. Just be glad it has a carpet." I told him. Just then Mike entered the room, dragging in a cot. "Where'd you get that?"  
"I found it in some closet." He answered simply.  
"Well were there any others?" I asked desperately.  
"No, sorry. It was the only one, or I would've brought you guys a bed, too." At least he was sorry about it. I bet if Zaydie found it, she'd keep it a secret and none of us would get it. I wondered exactly how smart it was of us to all be sleeping in the same room as a vampire. Or at least, a girl that I was 95% convinced was a vampire. I just hoped the mystery meat we'd eaten earlier satisfied her blood craving for the next while. I wondered if I should warn the others about Zaydie being a vampire. No, not yet. Not until I was comlpetely 100% sure.  
"Night, everyone." I mumbled.  
"Night."  
"G’night"  
"Mhm." Zaydie grunted. I let my thoughts drift, positioning my arms strategically to block my ribs from being kicked by Zaydie again. I fell into a deep sleep, my brain too tired to dream, only rest.  
"Hey, sleepyhead, wake up." I felt a light kick at my non-raised foot. "Foods ready." Huh? Food? I guess she prepared breakfast while I was asleep.  
"What time is it?" I asked sleepily. My back and legs ached from the hard floor and the odd position I'd slept in.  
"It's getting close to lunch. I figured I'd let you sleep in." I noticed she was holding something... more mystery meat. Great. I've been eating like a carnivore lately.  
"And you brought me breakfast in bed? That’s nice." I joked.  
"Ha. Ha. Ha. No. This is mine. You're not eating my food again. Yours is in the kitchen."  
"Well could you bring it to me? My ankle hurts more than yesterday." I already knew she'd say no, but on the off chance that she was feeling nice today, breakfast in bed WOULD be nice. Besides, she was already a bit cheerier than yesterday; she didn't kick my ribs to wake me up.  
"You can walk. You get it."  
"No I can't!" I argued, motioning to my swollen ankle. Although raising it helped the swelling, the awkward angle made it ache.  
"You managed to get here just fine by yourself last night." She reasoned.  
"Fine..." I was done arguing. Zaydie left the room, not even helping me up as I slowly made my way towards the kitchen. It probably took a good five minutes before I finally arrived, using the walls as support and wincing in pain when I accidentally touched my foot to the ground.  
"Oh hey, Kurt's up." Mike pointed out. He and Bill were just finishing up their breakfast. Or was it lunch?  
"Whoa! And it's not even the afternoon yet!" Bill laughed. I just smiled back at him. Everyone seemed to be in a bit of a better mood, despite last night’s sleeping conditions. I hopped over to the table, where my meal sat waiting. There were still no utensils, so it looked like I was eating like a caveman again. I picked it up and bit into it, and I couldn’t help but notice it was more cooked than my food was last night. Just slightly though. Maybe she didn't want to feed me potentially unsafe meat. Fair enough, I supposed. At least she remembered I like it rare.  
"Where'd you get this, anyways?" I blurted out suddenly, and immediately regretted asking. Zaydie looked straight at me and grinned. Wait a sec... doesn't human meat taste like pork? I wouldn't put it past her to feed us human. I mean, I didn't know her very well anyways, and something seemed suspicious about her. I looked to Bill and Mike, but they didn't seem to hear. "I'm full." I said suddenly, pushing the suspicious meat away, and struggling to stand up.  
"Suit yourself." She laughed.  
A few hours later, I found myself sitting on the bed. I was bored out of my mind. The others were out looking for dinner. Probably more meat again. At least if the others were with her, she would get something I could eat without worrying about my morality. I wished I brought my deck of cards, or something. I made a mental note to bring it along on the next mission. Bill walked into the room suddenly, and sat beside me on the bed.  
"Hi Kurtis. Mike is still out with Zaydie looking for food. Apparently I was 'slowing them down.'" He laughed.  
"Hey, Bill?"  
"Yeah?"  
"Do you think... do you think Zaydie would feed us human meat?" I asked him. I wanted to ask if he thought she was a vampire, but I decided it could wait.  
"I wouldn't be surprised." He said calmly. I didn't expect that answer! I thought he'd comfort me and tell me no way she'd do such a thing!  
"What? Really?"  
"Yeah. Maybe she even sent me back so that I wouldn't see her catch her prey." He joked. I think he was joking, anyways. How could he joke about something like this?! Bill got up and left me in the room, and soon I heard Zaydie returning.  
"I got your dinner! Come to the kitchen, I'll have it cooked up soon!" She called out to Bill and I, sounding eerily chirpy about it. I thought about skipping dinner today, but I limped into the kitchen anyways. Zaydie had already begun cooking the meat by the time I got there, but at least there was a small pile of berries Mike had collected anyways. Speaking of Mike... where was he anyways? Didn't he go out hunting with Zaydie? I stared worryingly at the fresh meat she'd brought in. Looked like it was berries for dinner tonight. I wondered how long it would be before I was the next victim. This was a nightmare, being trapped in a creepy castle with a bad ankle and a vampire that was slowly eating us one by one. I had just begun devising a plan to escape when I heard a voice at the door.  
"Oh, hey Mike. Where are the others?" It was Kate. I guess she made it back already. Mike said something about us being inside preparing dinner. Wait, Mike was alive? Mike followed Kate into the kitchen and she sniffed the air. "Smells good. Wild boar, I assume?" Zaydie nodded. "Why was Mike waiting outside, anyways?"  
"Just a little joke." Zaydie couldn't help but laugh. That was her idea of a joke? I didn't know how to feel. I wondered if Bill was in on it when he mentioned not being surprised at the idea of being served human.  
"I won't ask." Kate said. I swear she noticed how white my face had been. "I'm gonna go check for Sasha's scent, you can keep eating." She came back a minute later, looking disappointed. "Sasha left behind a note in the broom closet, laughing at the fact that she’d left, on a broom. There's no hope of following her. We should be going back to Shibusen immediately after dinner, since tonight is the last night of my cycle."  
"Uh... I can't really walk." I pointed out. She looked at me for a second, furrowing her brow.  
"Hmm..." She thought. "There is one way of getting you back..." That sounded ominous.  
"Well, princess, I could always carry you." Zaydie suggested. I didn't like this new nickname I'd been given.  
"Uh-uh. Is there any other way?" I asked.  
"Sure. Just hop on my back when I transform." Kate said. I got to ride a werewolf across the desert? That would be interesting.  
"Your foods ready." Zaydie plopped a pork chop onto my plate. At least I knew what it was now. Man, my food doesn't take long to cook at all, does it? She handed Kate a piece too, who grabbed the plate and eyed the area for a fork. "Just use your hands." Kate looked up at Zaydie and I, who had already started eating.  
"I was just trying to act civili-." Kate began to say, when she was suddenly interrupted. The moon had gotten to its vital point in the sky. BAM! She turned into a wolf. Looked like she didn't have a choice now. She scarfed the meat down quickly and eyed the area hungrily for more. I hoped she had full control in that form. Mike and Bill’s steaks finally finished and they got served, but as they were beginning to eat, Kate motioned towards the door. Right, we should probably start to head back, as we didn't want to have to travel during the day. They brought the pork chops with them and walked out the door, and Kate moved right up to me. Right! I was going to ride her. I climbed on awkwardly, trying not to bump my ankle on anything, and she set off. Too fast!  
"Slow down a bit!" I grabbed at the scruff of her neck, and she slowed to a slow walking pace. There was really no comfortable position to sit; her back wasn't shaped for someone to ride on. I could feel her muscles rippling underneath me as we set off through the jungle. She felt really strong, and I was glad she was on our side. After a short and bumpy ride, we got out of the jungle and into desert. It was a far way away from here. At least this was a little less bumpy. I adjusted myself slightly on her back, and realized I probably wasn’t getting any sleep tonight.  
"How's the ride, princess?" Zaydie laughed. We'd been walking for some time now, and my legs were getting stiff. My ankle was also bothering me, as much as I was trying to to keep it still.  
"I'm just glad I don't have to walk." Zaydie seemed to be inspired by that line. She ordered Mike to transform, and Bill grabbed him.  
"Hop on, we're going faster." Bill climbed onto her back and she stood up, Bill looking very awkward trying to hold on while holding a scythe. We picked up the pace a bit, trying to get to Shibusen before morning. I held on for dear life.  
Shibusen was getting into sight, probably only half an hour before we arrived now. The sky was beginning to brighten, and I noticed Zaydie looking uncomfortable. She stopped and let Bill, who looked slightly relieved, off her back. She pulled up her hood and jammed her hands into her pockets. Interesting... she didn't let any of her skin come in contact with the sun. Just as I was making this observation, I fell on my back with a thud. Standing before me was Kate, who had just transformed back to human.  
"Dammit! On the last night of the cycle I always turn back earlier." Kate sounded frustrated. And since Zaydie apparently had to keep her hands stuffed into her pockets, it looked like Kate had to piggyback me the rest of the way. It was a fairly long walk, but we made it back to the steps in the early morning. At least Kate was strong enough in human form to carry me. I felt slightly bad for being such a burden, but there wasn't much I could do. Climbing the steps proved another challenge, and eventually it was agreed that Zaydie would help Kate carry me up. It was a very uncomfortable ascent, but we got to the top and burst into Shibusen, heading straight to the infirmary. Stein stood above Nik, who was in human form now.  
"We got another one for ya." Zaydie told him, plopping me down on a chair.  
"I'll take a look at your friend in a minute." Stein said. "Right now I'm very busy with something." He looked concerned. Nik started to stir.  
"Not fish... where'd the mac 'n' cheese go?" Nik mumbled in her sleep. "Could I have some cheesecake or something?" That must've been some dream she was having. She went back into a deeper sleep, Stein examining her for a moment before sighing and walking over to me.  
"Show me your injury." He told me calmly. I rolled up my pant leg and showed him the swollen ankle. He grabbed my leg and raised it, and felt around my ankle. It hurt, but it was bearable. "Hmm... It's just a sprain. I'll put it in a splint and you should be fine. You probably won't be able to walk properly for a few weeks." He concluded. He almost sounded disappointed that it didn't need operating. I soon had a splint on my leg, and temporary crutches so I could get around.  
We went back to our dorms and collapsed with exhaustion. It was a nightmare to descent the stairs in crutches, but it was doable by myself, at least. We napped until dinnertime, and for once I was the one waking Bill and Mike up.  
"Let's go get dinner." I suggesting, poking them until they awoke. We swung by the girls dorms, where we met up with Kate and Zaydie. Mike had wanted to visit Nik afterwards, so we just ate at the cafeteria. None of us ate very much; we were all worried about her. We finished our dinner and quickly returned to the infirmary.  
"Stop." Nygus commanded. She stood outside the door with her arms crossed. "Stein is operating on her soul right now, and the last thing he needs is a distraction." It looked like Zaydie was about to protest, when another professor approached Nygus and began talking to her about something. Whatever it was, it seemed urgent, and Nygus left us unattended. Zaydie strolled over and opened the door.  
"What are you doing? We were told not to bother them right now!" Mike said worriedly.  
"I don't care, I'm checking on her anyways." Zaydie walked in, the rest of us hesitating a second before following behind her.  
Stein was standing over Nik again, cranking the screw in his head and concentrating hard on her. They started resonating, and I noticed I could sense her soul. No, wait, I could see it! A green ball had formed above her stomach, and it had a sickly purple line through the center. Stein began working on it immediately. He didn't even regard us being in the room.  
"Damnit, let me go back to sleep..." Nik mumbled, as her eyes flickered open. We all gathered around her hospital bed.  
"That might not be an option." Stein told her, as he was working at her soul.  
"Unh..." She flinched as he worked at the purple shard.  
"I thought I told you not to bother him during the operation!" Nygus burst into the room angrily, breaking Steins concentration. Nik seemed to lose consciousness again, and Stein sighed, keeping one hand on her soul. He struggled to keep hold of it for a second, before resonating properly again.  
"Look, until I get this thing out of her soul, your friend is going to stay in a coma. So please, just be quiet. You can stay if you really need to." He said bluntly, and began working on it again. The purple line seemed to loosen, and he managed to ease it out. It evaporated as it left her soul, and Nik seemed to relax. "Alright, it's out, but she's going to be in a coma for a long period of time." He seemed relieved that the process was over.  
"How long is long?" I asked him.  
"Three weeks at the very least. Probably more like a month. By the time she's back on her feet, your ankle should be fully healed, if that gives you a sense of time." A month?! That was a long time to be in a coma...


	14. Chapter 14

### Nik

I faded to black. No, I was already there. I'd been here for a while. What was this? Any other time I'd been asleep I just kind of woke up and hadn't noticed the time that had past. Or I dreamt. My subconscious seemed to read my thoughts and I was suddenly floating over an ocean. No, not floating. Flying. Where was this? No, I knew where I was. I was in my own imagination, of course. But I had kept all my memories, my knowledge of what had happened. Was this the coma Kate had been worried about? In any case, I might as well have fun while I was here! Or... I wasn't sure. Maybe I could wake myself up. I had to. If I didn't, what would happen with Kat? The sooner I was up, the better. I tried, but like the first time I'd experienced lucid dreaming, I couldn't. This time, however, I wasn't afraid that I had died. I knew I was just stuck in this coma. Try as I might, I couldn't wake up. I floated down to a little island and noticed a restaurant. Not sure what else to do, I walked in. I saw Kat at a table.  
"Snickers! Come sit down!" I joined her.  
"Kat... You're just my imagination, right?"  
"Sort of. I'm not your imagination, but at the same time, I don't exist."  
"You're me."  
"Yeah."  
"This is like those movies where the main protagonist has to talk to him or herself to figure something out. So I guess if that's me, you're gonna make me solve some puzzle to find out what I have to do, huh?" A waiter came by and put a plate down in front of me. I could feel in this dream, so maybe I could taste, too. I looked down and frowned. "Not fish... where'd the mac 'n' cheese go?" I looked up to the waiter. "Could I have some cheesecake or something?" He nodded and took the fish. Blech. "So I guess this is a coma, huh?"  
"I don't think everybody has the same experience. But it does seem that's what our current state is in."  
"Wait, if I'm talking to myself, does this mean I've finally gone insane?"  
"I thought you already realized that we're trying to solve some puzzle. This is just your mind's best way of helping you."  
"Fine." I mutter. This was going to get confusing. Probably. "So what do I need to figure out?"  
"Do you really think I can tell you that? Try just going over what's happened since you came."  
"Well I don't think I need to go that far. Maybe. I guess Sasha's probably been in control of Kat for a while now. It would explain the test and all the spacing out."  
"Mhm.." The waiter came back with my cheesecake. Finally something I could enjoy.  
"She tried to get Kurtis and I, but Zaydie helped us out there. Then she kidnapped Kat and ran off... made Zaydie go crazy... We followed her to this jungle and had to camp the night."  
"Yep." I wasn't sure if I was on the right track.  
"We crossed this river thing... if Kate hadn't been partners with Zaydie," I laughed, "we probably would have gotten stuck right there." Then again, without Kate we wouldn't have even gotten to the jungle. But I didn't think that was what I was supposed to learn. "Um, we fell into this trap, the meisters got gassed, Zaydie got Mike and I out cause she didn't have to breathe..."  
"Continue..." I wasn't sure if this was really me I was talking to. I mean, I can't see myself sitting that still. What if this was Sasha?! She had infected me with something that had put me into this stupid coma!  
"How do I know you're really me?" I demanded suddenly. I looked down at my empty plate. So much for enjoying the cheesecake, I'd barely noticed I'd been eating it.  
"You think I'm Sasha."  
"Tell me the secret password."  
"Come on, if I was Sasha I would probably be able to just access your memories and I wouldn't have to talk to you in the first place!"  
"I don't know..." If this was Sasha, what would she even have to gain by this silly talk? She played mind games. I knew that much. "The password."  
"We don't have a password." Was that a guess? I wasn't sure. But it was true.  
"It's the made up animal that we made." She sighed.  
"Talk to me when you aren't so distrusting of your own head. I don't want to have to give a password just to prove we're the same." I felt really bad. If that was me, I probably just ruined my soul resonance with... with who? Myself? I wasn't sure that was possible. I stood up and left the fading image of Kat. Everything was fading.  
"What's..."  
"I'll be back later," she promised. Was this just another mind game? Everything went black, and the next thing I knew, I was blinking my eyes open. I was on something. No, someone. Someone's back.  
"Who... What's going on?"  
"The poison in you has accelerated. I'm bringing you to a place that has the cure." That voice. It was familiar.  
"Why am I in... this?" I wasn't sure what it was. It was like a superhero suit thing. I don't know.  
"Oh, you can take that off now." He stopped walking and gently put me down. I took the green garment off, finding my regular school outfit on underneath. I looked up. Kid was there, his hand outstretched. "We need to keep going. We're almost there."  
"Why are you the one bringing me? What happened to Stein, to the others?" He laughed a little.  
"Are you disappointed?"  
"No... Just curious." We walked on.  
"We had to go through a magical zone unhealthy for regular humans. It's why you were wearing that green suit."  
"I see." We finally came to a weird pond with an island in the centre. Kid spawned his board and I took his hand instead of transforming. We zoomed to the island and I saw it was covered in beautiful red flowers. "Do I eat one?" What exactly was this cure? He nodded and smiled. I plucked one up, feeling bad about killing it, but I didn't want to die either. I pulled a petal off and put it in my mouth. It tasted... wonderful. Indescribably so. "It's amazing." I whispered.  
"So are you." I blushed a little bit. I'm not really a blushing person, but I can't deny that I like Kid. He leaned in close. It was such a romantic place, I leaned in too. His hands rested on my hips, and I placed mine on his shoulders. The flower dropped next to its family, forgotten in the moment. I looked into those golden eyes. They were.... just... perfect. And yet not, in their own cute way. He gazed back at me. This was it, wasn't it? We were going to kiss. I closed my eyes, but then opened them. I wasn't sure what to do with them. I kept looking into his eyes as our lips touched. They were surprisingly soft... Everything else faded but us. And then we faded too as I blinked and saw my friends hovering over me.  
"Damnit, let me go back to sleep."  
"That might not be an option," I heard someone struggling. My friends looked over to about my stomach area and I saw... my soul... but... Right through the middle of that little green sphere, was a line of purple. I felt faint suddenly. And sick.  
"Unh.." I felt something sharp- how did I feel that? As Stein tried furiously to get that purple line out.  
"I thought I told you not to bother him during the operation!" Nygus came in angrily. She pulled my friends away. I tried to stay conscious, this time. But I couldn't. So I was back on that little island, gazing into Kid's eyes. I knew it was a dream now, but it was still enjoyable.  
"Hmmm..." I heard a voice behind me. Both our eyes widened and we parted. I turned and saw... me?  
"Who are you?" I asked. Was this me? Was it Sasha?  
"I'm that purple line right in your soul." She was Sasha, then.  
"Go away."  
"Gladly, it's too much of a struggle to stay much longer. All I needed was some inside info." She winked and walked away, not sinking in the water. I noticed at the shore on the other side was that same diner again. Kat was looking out the window. My other half? I looked to Kid, who brought us back. I'm not sure where he went after that, he sort of just faded away. Everything was fading again. No! I had to get to my other half! We didn't need a password, I believed her now! I opened the door and there she stood. She wasn't Kat anymore, but I felt it, she was still me. I hugged the girl who looked like me, and yet wasn't. But at the same time she was. I opened my eyes once more to find myself in a hospital bed. I sighed and leaned back into the pillows. I don't know how long I laid there, thinking about everything from Kid's striped hair to whether or not strawberries would work on a pumpkin pie. Someone must have thought of that before, right? I wanted to try it one time. It would be interesting. These were the thoughts in my head when I heard a commotion from the hall.  
"Screw this! We have class in like 10 minutes, we're going in!" Zaydie burst through the door. She noticed I was awake. "You had us worrying, you know." Nygus stepped in from behind her. I guess she'd wanted to check on me before they'd burst in.  
"Aww, you worried about me?" Zaydie glared. I hoped she wasn't planning on punching me in the face right there.  
"They say you can be up and at'em in about a week." Mike sat in one of the chairs. The others did the same.  
"A week?! But what about Kat?!"  
"She's gone. They flew off on a broom, we can't track her like that." Kate looked sad, even though she hadn't really known Kat. Stein stood up, evidently leaving for a class or something. Wait, how long had I been out?  
"What day is it?"  
"Tuesday, the 20th. Classes are back on. Actually..." Zaydie grabbed Bill's arm for a watch. She didn't have her own?! "We should be going. We only really came to see if you were up yet. You've been out for almost a whole month, you know." I felt a pang of regret. Damnit! If I had only been able to transform, none of this would have happened. We could have saved Kat...  
"By the way," Stein said as he stepped out. He'd been packing up some books. "Nice dream."  
"Eh?!? Y-You saw that?!" My life. Was. Over.  
"Nope. I'm just kid-ding." He winked at me. The others looked confused. I blushed to myself. I guess he was going to keep it a secret. Luckily for me. My friends all left for class. Dang... this meant I would have catch-up work to do. I'd have to ask Bill to give me my homework. I'd definitely have time to work on it. I looked around and saw little gifts on my bedside table. Oh yeah. We'd battled Sasha on Christmas Eve. I wondered if these gifts were even left within a week of Christmas, cause I know I'd totally forgotten it even existed after all that 'you're-a-weapon-and-our-worlds-were-once-one' stuff. I reached over. Hopefully someone had given me a book or some cards or something. I picked up a purple and yellow striped one. From Mike, Bill and Kate. A book, perhaps? No way, it was too small. Barely the size of a pocket camera. Well, slightly larger. I gingerly peeled off the tape, excited. The first thing I saw was a small pair of earbuds. Earbuds? For wha- ooh, an MP3!! But wait, how was I supposed to get music? And would it even be the same?! Surely the music here would be different from my own world. I plugged in the headphones just in case and turned it on. I put the charger aside for later. I found a note beneath it all.  
Hey Nik,  
I went on you’re laptop and got all the songs from you're playlists, if you want any other songs theres a microphone and your laptop in the IDV (interdimension vault). You cant play any games or anything '-' but I figured this would be cool anyway. Luv you! :3 :D <3  
From Mike  
I winced slightly at his grammar, but plugged in and immediately relaxed as one of my favourite songs came on. "Thanks, Mike." I almost was content to not reach for the other present. But curiosity got the better of me. It was from Zaydie and Kurtis. This one looked like it was a box, about the size of a breadbox. I peeled the tape off of the green and blue polka-dotted paper. It was a box. Yay. I tried to be gentle with the next layer of tape, but eventually just stuck my nail in it and ripped it open. Inside I found a stack of papers. Fun. I read the top sheet.  
Book 33  
Yellow Feather Mystery  
Hardy Boys  
by Franklyn W. Dixon  
retyped by Kurtis Maxwell Jones  
(And Zaydie, too!)  
My eyes widened. My favourite book... it'd probably taken them hours to type. I laughed at how Zaydie had- well, I assumed she had put that last line in there. I wasn't sure. I looked at all those sheets of paper. About 180 pages, as I recalled. But that was with smaller paper, this was probably only 70 or so. Still, a ton of typing. I leaned back down and began to read, humming along to my music. I'd only read this book 7 times, one more time wouldn't kill me. Or maybe a little more than just once...


	15. Chapter 15

### Kurtis

Nik still hadn't woken up by the time I stopped using crutches. It wasn't abnormal, but we were still hoping she'd wake up fast anyways. It took just over two weeks for me to be able to walk properly, and another week before I'd felt like my foot was fully recovered. Apparently Christmas had been the day after we fought Sasha, but none of us had realized it in the heat of the moment. I got a few nice gifts, including a cool black sweater with Death's skull on the front and an MP3 player. It didn't have any songs I knew, but I was able to find a few I didn't mind. The biggest gifts were all sent to Nik, doubling as 'get well soon' gifts. I spent nearly every day while my leg was recovering in the IDV, copying her favourite book, The Hardy Boys Yellow Feather Mystery, into Zaydie's laptop. Mike and Zaydie accompanied me in the room, Mike recording songs for the MP3 player he got her and Zaydie helping me copy the book into her laptop.  
I had gotten special permission from Death to go to the UA to fetch Nik's favourite book. I decided to bring Zaydie and Kate along with me, since they were both curious about what the UA was like. I needed someone to help me around, since my ankle hadn't healed at this point yet. Mike and Bill came too, for reasons I was unsure of at the time.  
"You have four hours. Remember, no transforming into weapons, no matter what." Maka told us. We had to go at the same time as a new student pickup, so Soul and Maka had to come along too. Of course, they weren't going to be following us around. Zaydie and Kate had put on Nik and Kats old clothes from the time we arrived here, and the rest of us just put on our old clothes.  
Kate scrunched up her nose. "These clothes smell like cats."  
"Her name was Kat, what did you expect?" Bill laughed. With that, we stepped through the portal, back to our dimension.  
With a flash, we all stood on the road, the same spot that we'd been picked up from 2 weeks earlier. Kate and Zaydie marvelled at trees and grass and the sidewalk and just about anything else you can see. It took us a full hour from the park to get to Nik and Mike's house, which normally would have been at most 30 minutes. Zaydie and Kate kept poking at my hair, amazed at the millions of strands. Admittedly, after spending 2 weeks in their dimension, stuff looked weird to me too, but I pretended I wasn't fazed by it. Everything did look so much more detailed, I sort of missed that. Zaydie reminded me of a black-haired Nik, and the fact that she was wearing her clothes didn't help either. I noticed Zaydie remained a vampire even after coming back to this dimension. Did that mean vampires could exist in this dimension, even without magic? I pushed the thought from my head. I let Mike knock on the door to his house, his mom greeting him at the door. I suddenly started to miss my own parents, and decided we'd stop by at my house afterwards. Mike ran into the house to grab Nik's laptop, and I grabbed 'Hardy Boys 33', along with a few others just in case. Mike decided to stay behind at his house to catch up with his family a bit, so Bill, Kate, Zaydie and I walked to my home. With half of our time spent already, we arrived at mine and Bills house. Had my ankle not been injured, we could've saved a lot of time, but between Zaydie and Kate being interested in every little detail of everything and them having to support me along the way, we couldn't make it there much faster.  
It was a nice surprise to our parents when we showed up to the door, because even though they'd been told what happened to us, they weren't prepared for the sudden disappearance. We exchanged hugs, and I noticed both of them crying slightly. I tried not to do the same. I explained why we were here, caught up for a while then grabbed my laptop and we walked back to the meeting area, where Mike was already waiting. Maka and Soul showed up minutes later, with an unconscious new student they'd just picked up. Swearing we'd come back again, hopefully, we were transported immediately to the IDV.  
"Why'd the student black out?" Zaydie asked, poking him with her foot. Maka swatted her away as Soul dragged him behind a shade to get him in a hospital gown.  
"It's something to do with their bodies becoming adapted to magic." Maka explained. "We don't fully understand it yet."  
Zaydie looked suspiciously at the books I held. "What’re those even about?"  
"It's about two brothers that solve mysteries together. This particular one is Nik's favorite book." I said, holding up #33.  
"Eh." She muttered, leaving to get her laptop so I could type.  
"Well I'm going shopping for Nik; I'll see you guys later." Kate bid farewell and left.  
"Yeah I'm going back too, I'm hungry." Bill said, rubbing his stomach. He was probably having spaghetti again. Mike didn't say anything, merely opening Nik's laptop.  
Zaydie returned soon with her own laptop, already set up with a word processing program ready. I opened the book to page 1 and began typing. No need for a fancy title page, right? I typed away for a while, Zaydie reading intently over my shoulder, while Mike was arranging songs on Nik's laptop. Halfway through finishing the second chapter, I stopped for a food break. This was taking a lot longer than I expected. I ate dinner alone, Zaydie still behind in the IDV helping Mike record songs onto her laptop. When I came back I found Zaydie reading.  
"I didn't know you liked reading." I said, hoping I'd startled her. I don't think I did.  
"I don't. I wanna know how these idiots got themselves trapped in an igloo with 3 foot thick ice walls."  
"Right. I'm going to need that back to keep working on her gift."  
"Fine. Let me know when you go to sleep." She handed the book back to me. I started typing again, and got a couple more pages done before deciding to call it a night.  
"Here, enjoy. Try to type a chapter or two in the meantime." Zaydie grabbed the book back and began madly typing away. Man, she was fast at typing.  
The next morning I arrived after breakfast. It was pretty late, I'd slept in. Zaydie turned a page as I walked into the vault.  
"Were you here all night?!" I asked, surprised.  
"What's it to you?" She demanded.  
"Nevermind." I laughed to myself. I opened up her laptop to begin writing again and noticed she'd done up to chapter four. Not bad. She must've gone back sometime in the night to charge it though. She suddenly closed the book, as I was about to ask for it again.  
"So how'd you escape?" She asked me.  
"Er... what are you talking about?"  
"From jail." She said simply.  
"I never went to jail..."  
"But it says you did." She frowned at the book.  
"What do you.... oh." I realized suddenly what she meant. There was a character named Kurtis in the book that, apparently, was put into jail. Naturally, I shared a name with the bad guy. "Just gimme the book."  
"Whatever you say, Kurt. Or should I say, Harris Dilleau?!" She said accusingly.  
"How did you find out?" I gasped. I decided to play along.  
"One of the Hardy boys wrote it all down here." She glared at me.  
"But I'm 18! A-And Harris is like, mid-thirties!"  
"So? I'm 17, and yet also 15. Ages don't matter that much to me."  
"So you think I'm my mid-thirties?" I asked her.  
"It's a possibility." Wait a second... did she actually believe the story was true? This was too funny not to play along now.  
"Okay, okay, my secrets out." I jokingly admitted to her.  
She narrowed her eyes, as if unsure of something. "This is why I don't read books." She muttered. I wondered what the consequences of this might be... was it a good idea to trick Zaydie like this? I figured it was payback for when she tricked me into thinking I was eating human meat. She left me to my typing. The rest of the break consisted of Zaydie helping me out with copying the story, occasionally taking breaks to help Mike transfer a few songs onto her laptop. When I wasn't writing the story, I was studying for the exam. Nik finally woke up a couple days after school started, just in time for the exam. Since we were official partners, I got moved up to the EAT class. That meant I had to study for the EAT exam. Why couldn't we have become partners after the exam? This one was so much harder to study for.  
The exam finally came up on Friday. It was a weird feeling entering the EAT class, especially since my partner (and the only reason I was in the class) wasn't even there. Oh well. At least I wasn't late to the exam like I had started to make habit of. In fact, we were among the first people who'd shown up. Maka and Ox, naturally were already in class, doing as much last minute cramming as possible. I wasn't expecting a 100% like them, but I hoped to at least do better than the placement test I took before. I found a spot with the others and mentally prepared myself for the test. The class started filling up quickly, and I noticed a lot of familiar faces. There was Death the Kid! I thought back to the last time he took an exam, and had to laugh to myself. Looked like I'd have a form of entertainment during the test, assuming it went the same as last year anyways.  
"Ha Ha!" I heard from the doorway suddenly. No doubt Black*Star had just made his grand entrance. Tsubaki was close behind, apologizing for the interruption. A few more students filtered in, and I caught sight of Ida. What?! Nik never told me she was in this class! Did she notice me sitting here? No, she was too busy calming Dunny down. Man, that must be a full time job, keeping him in line. She and Dunny took a seat right beside Death the Kid, Liz and Patty. In fact, Ida was the only thing separating Dunny and Patty from being right beside each other. I couldn't even begin to imagine what they would be like if they sat together.  
The tests were handed out, and Stein cleared his throat loudly. "I hope you're all ready, because the test is about to start. Flip your papers, you have 60 minutes...the timer starts... Now!"  
I flipped over my paper and began immediately. I thought back to the placement exam I had taken a month ago. I won't make the same mistake as I did with that. See, if I get stuck on the first question, I'll just move onto the next without... Wait! I just wasted the last 2 minutes thinking about what I'll do on the test without actually doing anything! I've gotta stop zoning out like that. Down to business.  
About halfway through my test, I heard a commotion a few seats over. Soul got caught cheating again? Looks like he had to take the test in his boxers. Again. I guess he'll never learn. I looked over to Death the Kid and the others. Kid seemed to be doing a good job of writing his name, and this time he'd actually made it to a few questions in. Like last time, Patty was busy colouring in her paper, pink this time? I wonder what it'll turn out to be. Dunny seemed to be mimicking her, but his page was getting coloured black. Ida didn't even seem to bother trying to get him to write the test normally. I guess it was impossible. I looked up at the time. Only 22 minutes had passed, and I was already half done writing the test! This was going a lot better than the entrance exam. I'd even have time to look over the test and correct any stupid mistakes! Studying really does pay off.  
Only 8 minutes left, and I finished my last question. Since I had the extra time, I double checked everything. Seemed all good. "Aaaaaaaaand DONE!" I heard Black*Star yell from behind me, triumphantly handing in his paper. Stein looked at it for a minute, frowning, before handing it back.  
"It's double sided, you know." Stein remarked, casually.  
"What? Gimme that!" Black*Star snatched the paper out of his hand and stared at the back, a defeated look spreading across his face.  
"You'd better hurry, there's only 6 minutes left." Stein smiled. Black*Star stood, still as a statue, still staring at the blank side. I heard a few students snickering. Oh wait, that was just Dunny and Patty. They'd finished up their paper animals and were now playing an imaginary game with the toucan and flamingo they'd created. Poor Ida was having a horrible time trying to finish up her test and not be distracted by the bird noises coming from her brother and Patty. Stein didn't even seem to care about the disruption, sitting at his desk and waiting. Annnnd... Done! With 3 minutes to spare. I double checked to make sure I'd done the back page, then went up to hand it in, passing a still frozen Black*Star along the way. He took a quick look over it and told me I could be excused.  
"How do you think you guys did on the test?" I asked everyone once they'd joined me in the hall.  
"I think I did fairly well," Bill said confidently. We went to eat lunch while our sheets were marked by Nygus and Sid. We couldn't visit Nik until she finished her test too, to prevent cheating.  
"Yeah, me too." Mike agreed.  
"I dunno, I got stuck on that question near the end again..." Kate said nervously.  
"Oh come on, you always worry about that question and you always get it right. Regardless of where it happens to be that year." Zaydie pointed out.  
"How do you know it wasn't a different question?" Kate asked.  
"Because I know you. And there was only one or two questions that were in last year's test, one of them being right near the end."  
We finished lunch quickly and went to visit Nik, who was still in the process of eating hers. "Guys," she pleaded. "You gotta get me out of here!"  
"Why?" Kate asked with a smile. "Isn't the music and book enough to entertain you?"  
"Well, yeah, of course. That and school. But..." She trailed off.  
"But what?" Mike asked, impatient.  
"Well okay, so I just took the EAT exam just now, right? And Stein was like, supervising so I didn't cheat."  
"And you think you failed, so we've got to help you get the test and change your answers?" Bill joked. At least, I hope it was a joke.  
"Uh. No."  
"So what's wrong then?" I asked.  
"Well, I had about 4 questions left... and suddenly Stein turned around really fast and started cranking his screw. So I was like, 'Uh, what's wrong?' and he was silent for a sec. But then he was like..." She stopped once again. A glare from Zaydie made her continue. "He said if he didn't stop supervising he might end up dissecting me accidentally...."  
"So what's the problem?" Zaydie asked after a small silence.  
"The problem?" Nik looked worried. "Isn't it obvious?!" We were silent. Evidently, it was not. She brought her voice down to a whisper, even though Stein wasn't here right now. "Stein supervises the infirmary for the first few hours of the night!"  
"Alright, I'll devise a plan..." Bill decided.   
"Yeah. We'll get you out of here," Mike agreed.  
"Totally." Wait, Zaydie was with them? "We should be able to get you out by Tuesday."  
"But that's when I get out anyway!" Nik protested.  
"Well then that's perfect timing, isn't it?" Zaydie grinned.  
"You do need your rest, Nik. Stein knows what he's doing. I'm sure he was only joking." Kate comforted.  
"Right. Joking. Very funny, Stein." Nik didn't sound convinced it was a joke, but Kate did have a point. Stein knew she should rest at least a few more days.


	16. Chapter 16

### Nik

On Monday, Zaydie came in by herself. It creeped me out. Why weren't the others with her? I was about to bring this up, but she spoke first. "I didn't take you for the kind of girl to be besties with a criminal," she poked my side.  
"Eh?! I-I'm not!" I protested. Who was she talking about? Did she think we were best friends, now?   
"Really..." She grinned a me like she knew all my secrets. "And here I thought you guys told each other everything.  
"Um, which friend are we talking about?" I told everything to all my best friends. Considering I didn't think of Zaydie as quite my best friend yet.   
"Kurtis, of course."  
"Kurtis is a criminal?! Wh-What'd he do?!"  
"He tried to kill the Hardy boys, for one thing!" She looked so defiant. I realized it now.  
"Zaydie, do you know what the word fiction means?"  
"Course I do."  
"Do you know it from experience?"  
"Um. Maybe. Maybe not."   
"I'll take that as a no. How did you ever get through school?!" I asked, laughing.  
"Skipped English. I can speak without some stupid teacher telling me how."  
"That's not all there is to English," I told her. I never thought I'd be defending English class. "See, my favourite books are all fiction. The Hardy boys included. Kurtis is really just an 18 year old boy, and Harris is a made up person." She glared at me. I hope she wasn't planning on anything.  
"I'm gonna kill that kid. Or maybe I'll make it so he looks like he's 18 when he's in his mid-thirties..." she plotted. My eyes widened.  
"P-Please don’t... This is my best friend you're talking about..." She gave me another look and then left. "Hey, wait!" She turned. "Where are the others?"   
"English class." The door slammed. What? There was no English class here! I went back to my music and daydreaming. I'd already finished all my work and had my marks for the test back. I'd done better than Kurtis, but not by as much. I'd gotten 87%, he got 81. Bill had a straight 80, and Mike got 71, though I think Mike actually put the most effort in. As the youngest of us all, he didn't know as much advanced intelligence question stuff. I wasn't sure what the girls got.   
The next day I finally was allowed to leave the infirmary. Walking was a pain, I hadn't stood up in literally a month and a week. I'd had meals delivered to me, despite my protests. I walked to the cafeteria and dreaded, once more, the walk down the stairs. Kate offered to bring me down as a weapon, but I'd been told not to transform for yet another week after. So like a sloth I made my way down the stairs. Luckily I had everyone accompanying me. I wasn't sure if it was for support or just because we were friends, though. "So, they said that in February we're going to start doing some actual missions! They called them remedial lessons, though," Mike said excitedly.   
"And then in March they hinted at some other cool stuff," Kurtis added.  
"But... what... what about Kat?" I asked. I knew there was nothing we could do at the time, but they were all acting like they'd forgotten about her!  
"Nik, we'll never forget Kat. If we ever find a sign of her, you can bet we'll go after her. But right now there aren't any, so we have to continue getting stronger for the day we might rescue her," Kate put her hand affectionately on my shoulder. It didn't help much.   
"Sides, you newbies couldn't even take Sasha if she did want to battle you," Zaydie didn't bother lowering her voice to a mutter for once. I wanted to protest, but again I was cut off.  
"She's right," Mike said. My own brother. "We might have done good on the test, but she placed enough traps that even Zaydie couldn't get her."  
"But Zaydie's never trained to use me!" I yelled.   
"Exactly," she hissed, pushing me against the railing and glaring deep into my eyes. "Nik, your complaining is only going to hinder our training progression. What we need now is determination, not whining. So shut up, and work hard, and maybe we won't get our butts handed to us the next time we meet Sasha." I bit my lip and looked down. She was right. I was the only one complaining. We continued in silence. I couldn't stop my worry for Kat. But worrying has never been any good. If there's something you can do, then you do it. Worrying is a waste. So from here on out, I'd have to keep my worries to myself. Instead, I would think about what I could do to prevent those worries from coming true.   
The next week was hell. I kept wanting to work on my transforming, and try to transform divided, but I kept my word and stayed human. I worked on my strength and endurance, and stamina. I climbed trees, I even did a few push-ups before falling and having Zaydie laugh at me. I sensed that it was partly in good fun though. Maybe Zaydie was becoming a friend, I thought. She still creeped me out though. I tried running up the stairs, like I watched Dunny do every day. Bad idea, I drained my water bottle before I even reached the halfway point. I trained a little with wielding Zaydie and Mike, but they weren't my usual partners, so of course I didn't train with them very much.   
We didn't have dissection classes as often as I'd feared we would, since we got excused from a good portion of our classes to train for remedial lessons. Since we came mid-year, we didn't get the usual training at the beginning of the year. Sid was our teacher for the pre-remedial lessons. He had Bill working on basically everything since he had almost no experience with a scythe. With me, he wanted Kurtis to focus on using me as twin blades. At first he didn't seem sure how to use me, exactly, but then Sid attacked us suddenly with Nygus, who I hadn't even noticed was here. Kurtis quickly put up both blades to block her.  
"I wouldn't suggest using two blades to block one," Sid said, and kicked Kurtis in the stomach. He fell back.  
"Ow..." He stood up again. Sid went to help Bill and Mike in their training. I wondered what we were supposed to practice on. Stein had to teach a class, and the death scythes of the world had surely gone back to their relative stations. Minus Marie, since I'd seen her that day before the break. Come to think of it, I think maybe she really did end up being with Stein; she sort of looked like she was getting a bit of a baby bump. It wasn't Marie who came in though. It was Death the Kid. Wha-  
"Don't you have class or something?" I cut off my own thoughts. Didn't know I could do that.  
"The other teachers are busy and I've completed the assigned work for today." Great. I mean, any other day I would have loved to have Kid as a teacher, but I'd probably get distracted and I was trying to train seriously, for on- Kurtis quickly ran behind a tree as he shot at us.  
"At least try to push those emotions out of your head," Kurtis muttered. Oh yeah. Shared feelings. Well, it's not like I was trying to hide this from Kurt, anyway. I focused on fighting and training and... stuff like that. Yeah! We fired a quick arrow from behind the tree. I hadn't even noticed Kurtis had put me back together. Man, we had a good resonance, now that Sasha wasn't around. The thought of her made me push myself harder. Until I was distracted by Mike and Bill's voices.  
"Soul resonance! Witch hunter!" Th-they'd done a soul resonance already? I always figured we would be the first to! I felt Kurt's emotions sort of and took a guess that he wanted to try that, too. I felt him send his wavelength into me and I amplified it. Don't even ask how. I just... did. And then I sent it back for him to use. But it didn't stop there. As the wavelength came back once more, my concentration broke. Mainly due to the giant hole Kid had placed in the tree above us. We ran away.  
"Daaamniiiiiit!!" We ran between trees and stuff and shot a couple arrows between blasts. I formed a plan... But would it work?   
"Whatever it is, think of it soon!" Kurtis urged me. Ah! Had I said that out loud? Or maybe it was one of those weird shared feeling things.   
"Hey Kid!!" I shouted, praying he wouldn't hate me for this later. "Bill's overcoat is crooked!!" He turned as we'd hoped and this time we didn't try the resonation in steps. It was automatic, like I felt him just beginning to send his wavelength and I was already amplifying it and returning it.  
"Soul resonance! Bladed fury!" Crap. We weren't close enough for this. But the resonance was a lot stronger when we doubled the times we resonated, which was only possible when I was in two. My amplification rate might not be as good, but it was still more powerful. Kurtis dashes to try to empty the space between us, but it was no good, Kid was gone. The heck? I felt- or rather, Kurtis felt, twin barrels on his neck.  
"Boom." I transformed back, exhausted. Wait. Had I just done that? Separated? No, Kurtis had just put me together. Somewhere in there. Kid adjusted my pants as I spoke.  
"You know, there's really no way we would have won anyway," I blushed as he stepped back, satisfied that they were symmetrical. But I was too tired to care for long.  
"I agree. But that was just a test to see what you might need to work on." What?! We fought him as a test?! Ahh, I hoped we hadn't done super awful. "Your accuracy was pretty good, though you could work on bending the arrows. Also, remember that when you're planning on resonating like that from a distance, you should use her bow form. As a blade you'll only waste her energy, and yours, by trying to close the distance." I sat back against a tree, tired.   
"Water..." I mumbled. I looked over to see how Bill and Mike were doing. A good portion of trees were knocked down, but it looked like they'd lost, too. I didn't think they'd be willing to trade teachers, especially considering the fact that Mike wasn't a range weapon. I was handed a water bottle- where had he even gotten it from?! - and drank half of it right there.  
"See?" I hadn't realized that Kurtis might not believe him. Wasn't he exhausted, too?  
"Hey, why isn't he tired?" That didn't seem very fair.  
"Since you were blades when you resonated, you had to work twice as hard to amplify his wavelength, while all he had to do was send it twice. As a bow, you would have been less than half as tired as you are now, like Kurtis is." That was almost confusing. But I think I got it.   
"Oh, uh, sorry I told you Bill's coat was crooked," I said, standing up. I felt pretty bad about that.  
"That was actually a good move. Using your enemy's weakness to your advantage is something people often don't do enough."  
"Yeah, well, in our case, it's the only thing she wants to do," I muttered. We all knew who I was talking about. "Hey, where are the other weapons you got, anyway? Kurtis told me there was at least one other UA kid, from when they went to pick up my book." Bingo. I knew something was funny about this special class.  
"This class... it's not just a preparation for your remedial lessons. Normally new students don't go on missions, that much is true, but it's also not uncommon for them to be in the EAT class. Those weapons often train, much like you did, because they feel they are behind: they don't tend to train people to kill in the UAD. However, your group has become the target of a witch, who might show up at any moment. Thus, until March, you'll be taking these classes 3 days a week."  
"What happens in March?" Kurtis asked. I noticed Bill and Mike had silently made their way over. Sid left, presumably to get lunches.  
"You'll be teamed up for team resonating. Yours is, in fact, the only team that has already been pre-chosen, aside from other groups from previous years." Just how many new weapons were there in the EAT, that they weren't all in one group or something? I decided to ask.  
"Surely there aren't that many new weapons, though. Wouldn't they all just be put into one group?"  
"There are more than you think," he smiled his weird smile. Er. H-he just smiled. I tried not to think of my crush on him. "However, as others have labelled them 'UAs,'" he quoted with his fingers. "They often keep their pasts to themselves. Instead, they get mixed in with the other new students we often get." Oh yeah... I forgot; we weren't the only new students Shibusen would have. Otherwise there would be too many weapons, and not enough meisters, unless weapons always came over with their best friends. I wasn't sure. Sid came in with our lunches, and I found myself sitting next to Kid. Ooh, maybe we could get to know each other more! Em. If you know what I mean.   
"So," I broke an awkward silence. Or maybe it was just awkward to me. I'm not very comfortable when things are quiet, which was making this whole waiting-for-Sasha-to-make-her-move thing really hard. "Do we still train outside when it rains?"  
"Do you stop fighting an opponent if the weather turns bad?" Mike asked. Ah! Way to make me look bad!  
"Just making small talk," I turned my head. And what a coincidence, it suddenly started raining right then. I smiled at the irony and tried to prevent my sandwich from getting wet.   
"Can't we train inside?" Kurtis complained from another tree. Had he not been listening at all?! I mentally face-palmed.  
"Weren't you listening?" Liz asked. I'd almost forgotten she and Patty were there, too. Oops.  
"Nope, even if it snows," Sid said. I half expected the rain to turn to snow. Wait, we were in a desert. In an oasis. I wasn't sure it should even rain in the desert, despite the fact that we were in an oasis. I summed it all up to magic, like that jungle we'd found. After finishing our sandwiches quickly, we stood up.  
"This is making me wish I was a weapon," Kurtis muttered, his hair almost completely drenched. I know mine was. Even Kid's hair was soaked, making him look.... emo.... It was kind of freaky, to be completely honest. I transformed and prayed that we wouldn't try the bladed resonance thing again.  
"So, same thing?" I asked. I half expected to find a hole in the tree behind us in a split second, but nothing happened. In fact, Liz and Patty weren't even transformed!  
"For Bill and Mike, perhaps."  
"Eh? What are we going to do?!"  
"Try to transform to human." I did so, easily. He sighed. "Not like that."  
"Listen, here, Kid. I only have one human form." I also seriously doubted I could change outfits like that, too.  
"Transform back." I did, still confused. "Divide her," he instructed Kurt.  
"Wait, but I can't do that!" I protested.  
"And you won't be able to if you never try." His tone was serious. I was nervous. I felt myself split again, still barely noticeable. "Hold the halves one centimetre apart." He sounded like he wasn't sure about how far I should really be. I tried transforming, even before Kid told me to, but I just... couldn't. He narrowed the gap to a half centimetre. I couldn't do it. A millimetre.  
"I... I did it," I gasped. I was totally wiped out. Gasping. That. Was. Hard.  
"We'll need to work on that more... Good job, though." He smiled and handed me another water bottle. I drained it. Call me corny, but I swear, that work... actually, no, it wasn't worth that smile. Hmph. I drained half of another bottle before realizing it was probably Kurt's. He didn't seem to mind, though, since he hadn't really had to do anything.  
"Let's try again," I said. Kurtis seemed shocked.  
"But you still haven't recovered from the fi-" I cut him off as I transformed again. He grabbed me, but there was tension. He was unsure of this. "Are you sure?"   
"Yeah." Kid watched with a worried look.  
"Hey, is this really such a good idea?" Liz asked Kid.  
"Not if she plans on doing it more than one more time." I barely heard him. I could do this. I had to do this. For Kat. Kurtis held me at one millimetre.  
"Make it two," I told him. It was almost a dare. He still seemed unsure, but he obliged. I focused all my willpower into bringing my soul together. Focus on me, my hair, my eyes, my mouth, everything about me.  
"She did it," I heard Kurtis whisper from behind me. I smiled as I stood, my feet firmly on the ground. And then I fainted from exhaustion.


	17. Chapter 17

### Kurtis

"Nik? You alright?" I asked, shaking her.  
"Stop shaking her." Kid ordered. "You shouldn't shake someone who's just fainted." He knelt down and put his ear to her mouth, to check for breathing. Nik started to stir, then her eyes flickered open. She turned red as a tomato when she realized Kid had his ear to her mouth.  
"She's awake now, Kid." I pointed out.  
"I see. Well, in any case, she's also breathing." He nodded at this magnificent conclusion.  
"Y-yeah... I tend to do that..."Nik joked, picking herself up. "So... how about we don't try that again?" She smiled sweetly.  
"We'll work on it next training session. I don't think you should push yourself so hard that you faint, though." Kid suggested. "I think we're done for the day." The next day was training again. Man we had a busy schedule, it was hard to keep up with the classes we missed and train 3 days a week. Sid accompanied us this time, to help Bill and Mike mostly. Nik and I were going to be working on having her change back to human while split, so we weren't getting much combat training in.  
"So, Bill and I are getting pretty good a-" Mike began to say, but was cut off suddenly when Sid tackled him to the ground.  
"Always stay focused on the opponent, even if you aren't fighting."  
"But this isn't even the training grounds yet!" Mike complained, standing up and brushing himself off.  
"You said it was the clearing in the woods."  
"Not this clearing, the next clearing!" Nik protested. Nik became quiet suddenly. The next clearing was dead ahead, and Death the Kid was already there, tapping his foot impatiently.  
"You're two minutes late! It's 8:02 and training starts at 8:00 sharp!"  
"Ready to start?" I asked him, ignoring his outburst.  
"Unbelievable..." He muttered. "Now let's get down to business."  
“I’m really sorry,” Nik apologized before we begun. “But we’re ready to start now.”  
"So, quick question," I added suddenly. "I was thinking last night... Nik seemed to have a lot of trouble transforming while split. Should I give her some of my energy to use too?"  
"Of course! Were you not before?"  
"No, he wasn't," she turned and glared at me in annoyance.  
"Alright, do you want to try 2 millimetres again?" Kid asked. "It should be easier now that you're getting help with it." He looked straight at me, as if accusing me, and I split Nik apart and held her 2 millimetres apart. This time, she easily transformed back, without even breaking a sweat. Nik stood for half a second, looking stunned, before her face broke out in a huge grin. I half expected her to pass out like last time, but she looked completely fine.  
"That was easy!" She celebrated, jumping with joy. "Let's try more!" Kid stood close by, arms crossed and smiling to himself.  
"Why don't you try a centimetre?" Nik transformed back and split again.  
"You ready?" I asked.  
"Mhm!" I could feel her determination. I held her just a centimetre apart, and lent her some energy. Again, she transformed back with little effort. She grinned at me suddenly. "Let's try 10."  
"You sure you wanna go all the way to-" I started to ask, but she had already transformed and was in my grip again. I swear, her determination was contagious or something. I glanced over at Kid, who was watching us closely. This was the first noticeable gap that we'd be tackling. In a flash of light, she stood in front of me again. She opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Kid.  
"Impressive. Why don't you try a full arms-length? This seems like it's been easy enough for you."  
"Good idea! This has been going too slow anyways," Nik agreed, and transformed again. I shot a quick glance over at Bill and Mike, who were sparring with Sid. They were doing a fairly good job of it too, but Sid was probably holding back. I held both my arms straight out at my sides, but Kid stopped me.  
"What are you doing?" He demanded. "I meant in front of you! If she transforms back now, she'll appear directly inside you and you'll both be killed!" He sounded concerned.  
"No," Nik argued. "I can sense Kurt, I won't appear inside him." Before Kid could argue, she’d transformed back again and was standing in front of me. Whoa. We'd just done a whole arm-span distance.  
"That was an unnecessary risk," Kid scolded.  
"No, it’s like, I can use his soul perception and avoid souls in between my halves. It’s hard to explain, but I can move just the slightest bit so that my soul doesn’t hit any other souls, you know? Like, his soul has a sort of barrier around it that prevents my soul from coming too close, without us using a resonation thing. When I transform back, I can go up, down, or any direction I choose,” Nik explained.  
"I see..." Kid didn't seem to be too upset at us, more interested than anything. It suddenly occurred to me that he'd probably never seen a weapon that could split before. "So you can transform back while you're split now. I want to try something. Transform back to weapon form."  
"Okay," Nik obeyed, and I was now holding her again.  
"Good. Now divide her. Place one blade into that tree." He motioned to a nearby. "Then take a few steps back and try again." I placed one half of her into the tree trunk and took a couple steps back.  
"Ready?" I asked Nik. This was going to be a lot harder than before. I focused all of my energy, and I could feel Nik struggling to transform back. In a flash of light, she was back as a human.  
"We did it," she panted. She looked fairly tired, more so than me.  
"Ready to try even further?" I laughed. For a second, she looked like she was about to give up, but put on a determined face.  
"Let’s do this." She transformed, and I split her again. I stuck a blade in the trunk again and took 2 steps back. Before I could start, though, Kid stopped me.  
"You put the blade in all wrong, just look at it!" He angrily pointed at the tree. The marks left by the blades weren’t in any way symmetrical. Sometimes he was impossible to work with. "Here, I'll take one blade, you take the other."  
He grabbed the blade out of the tree and wielded it awkwardly, trying to hold it symmetrically. I expected to feel his soul now that we were both wielding the same weapon, but I couldn't. I could feel Nik notice his soul, however, and suddenly become extremely excited. She repressed the feeling a moment later, becoming serious once more. Kid fumbled with the blade for a minute, before finally settling with holding it in the opposite hand as I was. He didn't seem happy, but at least we could start.  
"Okay, now, transform back," he ordered. I offered my energy, but Nik wasn't able to transform.  
"I… I can't..." she said suddenly, sounding defeated.  
"Were you sharing your energy?" I asked Kid.  
"Of course I was. And you were too, I assume."  
"Yup."  
"I felt both of them, but they didn't match at all. One was determined and hopeful, while the other was calm and controlled," Nik said.  
"How are we supposed to get them to match?" I asked.  
"Well, we could always resonate," Kid suggested.  
"Resonate? Can you even do that with two meisters and one weapon?" she questioned.  
"I don't see why not," Kid answered. "It's worth a try anyways."  
"I don't even know how to resonate like that though!" I pointed out.  
“Well, from what I remember in the anime, it took the others a whole month before they could,” Nik spoke up. “To team resonate, at least. I don’t know if this would be the same as it. But like, we could try doing that. Let me just try to remember what Maka said at the end, there…” She was quiet for a while. “I’ve got it. Okay, both of you, you’ve got to like, just, trust. It’s the key. I don’t know if it’s the same for other emotions, so just… trust me, and each other. Okay?" Trust each other. Trust Nik. It was easy to trust Nik, she was my best friend. But how was I supposed to transmit that to her? How do you send a feeling over a wavelength, to two people, too? It didn't help that I couldn't feel Kid, either. However, I could feel what Nik was sending to me. Or rather, feeling. She wasn't really sending it anywhere, just mentally knowing that she trusted us. I knew I trusted her, so I focused my thoughts on that. The connection between Kid and I was pretty sketchy, but we were able to send energy to Nik, as though we were doing a soul resonance. Within moments, she transformed. “Yeah!!” she yelled, pumping her fists. “We did it!!”  
"Well, not quite. But it was close enough," Kid said.  
"What do you mean?" Nik asked.  
"There wasn't a complete connection between Kurtis and I."  
"But it still worked, right? That's all that matters?" I asked.  
"Yes. However, you should still work on it. There's plenty of room for improvement."  
"Umm actually, can we eat? I'm kind of hungry," Nik said, frowning.  
"Sid just left to get our lunches, actually," he pointed out. I noticed Bill and Mike approaching us.  
"How did your training go?" I asked.  
"Pretty good," Mike grinned. "Bill learned how to use his soul perception."  
"Hey, why doesn't Nik have a soul..?" Bill joked. He received a punch in the arm.  
"Kurtis can do that, too," Nik said enthusiastically. "Wait'll you see what we can do!" Before she was able to brag further, Sid arrived with our food.  
"What'd you bring?" Bill asked hungrily.  
"Just sandwiches. Nothing too fancy." He answered, handing out a few boxed lunches. I opened up my sandwich and checked it for cheese. It passed my inspection. Nope! No cheese! I put it back together and took a big bite. Up until now, I hadn't realized how hungry I was.  
"Thanks, Sid! I don't know what we'd do without you," Nik beamed, brushing off some dirt from the lunchbox.  
"We'd probably just get someone else to go," Bill shrugged.  
"Dibs not going!" Mike barked quickly.  
"Uh, we already have our lunches." Nik pointed out.  
"I'd probably be the fastest to get lunch, in any case," Kid said.  
"Actually..." Nik started thinking, "remember the rope thing we did, back at Sasha's castle?"  
"Rope thing?" Kid asked.  
"Yeah, Nik was able to fire an arrow with a tail into the roof. It couldn't hold me up, but it could probably drag out lunches here." I laughed.  
"Did you want to work on that after lunch?" Kid asked.  
"What, dragging lunches over to us so we don't have to do it ourselves?" Bill joked.  
"No. The tailed arrow."  
"Maybe. I just want to try a bit more with the transforming thing, and see how far I can go," Nik breathed. There was a loud noise as she drained her juice box, trying furiously to get the last few drops. We finished our lunches and began training again.  
"This time," Kid challenged, "I want you to stand a few meters away. Think you're up for that?"  
"I think so." Nik agreed, and swiftly transformed into a bow. It was still hard to resonate, but I remembered what Nik said about trusting each other. This time, it felt a little more natural, and though the distance was greater it wasn't actually that much harder to help her transform. Not to say she wasn't tired after transforming. "One more time." She panted. "Way further away this time. So you can't even see each other through the woods,” she panted, her eyes wild with excitement.  
"Are you sure?" I asked cautiously, but there was no changing her mind. Kid seemed uncomfortable with it, too.  
"Yes. I want to see how far I can go." Nik transformed again, Kid and I each taking a blade and walking into the forest. I went until I couldn't see him anymore.  
"Far enough?" I asked.  
"Yeah, I think so." I could feel her slight nervousness, but mostly an overpowering excitement to do this successfully. It boosted my confidence too. With my eyes closed, I tried resonating again. I wondered if Kid was disappointed in me because I couldn't resonate with him. Did he see me as weak? Probably. I pushed the thought out of my head. I had to trust him completely for this to work. I felt the bond strengthen the tiniest bit, and I fed all of the energy I could into the blade. In a flash of light, she disappeared from my hands and shot off into the forest somewhere. Just as I was thinking it had been a success, I heard a bloodcurdling scream come from the direction her light had gone in.


	18. Chapter 18

“Nik, are you sure about this?” Kid asked as he started walking away. To be honest, I was a little bit nervous. But more so, I was determined.  
“Yes. At any moment, we could find a trace of Sasha. And I would never be able to forgive myself if we failed a second time because of me.” I could tell he was worried. But I guess he sensed my stubborn determination for this, because he stopped. I heard Kurtis from my other half.  
“Far enough?”  
“Yeah, I think so.” I couldn’t see either half of me, and using Kid’s soul perception, I could tell Kurtis was pretty far away. And, whoa, was that… my other half? It was like any other soul, but smaller.  
“Here’s good,” I told Kid. We started focusing. I tried to be calm and focus on both of the boys. I trusted them both, completely. Even Kid, who I really didn’t know that well, at least not personally. I’m not sure why, but it was actually really easy to trust him.  
I didn’t sense anything in between my halves. With a flash of green, I was zooming, in two directions at once. My soul halves connected, merging into one large soul. My body formed, and with wide eyes that nobody saw, I tried to stop. I couldn’t though, it all happened in half a split second. I screamed. I hadn’t sensed anything in between my halves. But trees didn’t have souls.  
Immediately I heard footsteps to my left and right.  
“Nik!” Kurtis called. Kid arrived first and saw. At first he’s confused. I was just standing beside a tree. But then he realized it. I wasn't leaning against this tree; my right arm… was connected to the tree. I stopped screaming, but tears streamed down my face. Kurtis arrived too, and I heard Sid and the others running from somewhere behind me.  
Sid was the first to take action, while the rest stood in shock and asked if I was okay. I didn’t respond though, I was too busy crying.  
“Mike, transform. Bill, carve her arm out of the tree, but don’t touch the arm itself.” It hurt so much, but I bit my lip while Bill followed the instructions. “Kid, bring her back to the infirmary. The rest of you, we’re done for the day.” I held my arm close to me, and Kid spawned his board. I wondered how it would work in the forest. Regardless, I stepped on the board behind him and we were off like rockets, the others immediately out of sight. We reached the school in mere seconds, where I become thankful that the infirmary wasn’t that far from the front doors.  
Nygus immediately turned when we barged in, and upon seeing my arm, sat me down on a bed and phoned Crescent Moon Class. Within minutes, Stein arrived, saying that Spirit was going to be subbing. While Stein started on my arm, my mind wandered. Kid said he was teaching us because no other teachers were available. But if that were the case, why had Spirit been around as a sub? I managed to suppress my suspicion. Perhaps it was protocol of some sort to have a sub for Stein's class. After all, you never knew when some kids gonna get her arm stuck in a tree. Or something else that was serious enough that Nygus couldn't deal with it. I decided I would ask Kid about it later, alone. After all, it was probably nothing. He had no reason to lie. I was brought back to reality suddenly.  
"We're done," Stein said. I looked up, amazed at the pile of wooden splinters to the side.  
"I didn't feel a thing," I remarked, eyes wide.  
"I used that," he pointed to an empty needle that I vaguely recalled having in my arm. I wasn't sure if I would have wanted to watch anyways.  
"Thanks," I say, rubbing my bandaged arm. Oh hey, that hurts a bit.  
"Don't put any pressure on it for the next little while, okay?"  
I stopped rubbing my arm and laughed sheepishly. "Gotcha," I said, stepping out of the room. I saw the others, including Kid, standing in the lobby. I raised my arm. "Looks like I'm okay," I grinned. I wondered if I'd get a scar. They were like trophies here, right?  
We walked off to go eat, and before I could talk to Kid, he zoomed off. "Wait!" I called, but of course he was too far away on his board. The guys looked at me questioningly. I decided I would just talk to Kid tomorrow, visit his house or something.  
"What'd you need him for?" Mike asked.  
"I just wanted to talk to him," I said. I realize the others will think it's cause I like Kid, but if it's nothing I'd rather not have him accused behind his back. If it's something, though... well, I'd tell them tomorrow, at training after I talked with Kid.  
Over dinner, we decided not to have training on Sunday, since the girls were taking me on some sort of shopping trip, and Mike wanted to rest. That night I slept restlessly, and had even knocked over a lamp by the time I woke up. I told Zaydie to tell the others I'd be late, since there was something I wanted to do. Inside I scolded myself for forgetting to tell them yesterday. I pushed these thoughts from my head and wondered how I would find Kid's house. As it turned out, it wasn't that hard. It was along the same line of symmetry as the school. I pushed the buzzer on the gate, and a familiar voice spoke.  
"Who is it?" I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be formal, but I didn't want to take any chances.  
"Nicole Rin Haibero," I said, slightly softer than I'd meant to. I hoped they'd hear me. The gate opened and I saw Liz dash out the front door. We met about halfway down the drive.  
"What are you doing here?" she demanded.  
"Uh, I wanted to speak with Kid," I said, uncomfortable. She pondered this for a moment.  
“I'll go get him." She ran off before I could say a word.  
"Um... but... what do I do?" I asked, mostly to myself. I noticed the front door is open. Habit alone brought me up to the door, and I half expected Patty to come tumbling down the stairs. Her loud snoring immediately removed that possibility from my mind, however. I stepped inside, kind of nervous. Maybe I should have just waited outside... My feet were starting to hurt, though, so I looked around for somewhere to sit. What happened to all those chairs from the parties Kid would hold? Finally I stumbled across a room with a few comfortable looking couches. I sat down gratefully, and a morning breeze hit my face. As the minutes ticked by, I gradually, without even realizing it, allowed myself to get more and more comfortable. I blinked and I realize I was falling asleep! But no... It was too late, and I found myself in the diner again. I tried desperately to wake up, but nothing happened. I wondered why I even knew I was asleep. Wasn't there some sort of deep sleep thing that came before dreams? Or maybe I had it backwards. I watched, fascinated, as Kid appeared in the seat in front of me.  
"Why do you keep changing appearances?" I asked.  
"Is this not the person you want to talk to most, presently?"  
"Um. Yes... but I don't have anything to figure out, do I? I mean, talking to the real Kid is more important to figure it out this time."  
"A new problem has arisen. I can't tell you anything directly."  
"So what's the point of this?" I demanded. Sometimes my head makes no sense.  
"Just take this advice. It's all I can give you." I suspected it would end up being in code, or riddled or something.  
"Communication and reflections. Friends, and foes." I mentally was both facepalming and high fiving myself. Of course. But he continued on. "Two sides of a coin, the other half is often forgotten."  
I frowned. "Um... is there a time limit to this?" I hoped not. I'm no good at riddles I haven't heard.  
"That is for the reflection to decide." Then he faded away. Someone was shaking me awake. I blinked the sleep out of my eyes. Liz stepped back and I heard Kid shut the window to my right. I rubbed my head where I suspected I'd been laying on something hard. I'd have to drink some water later if the pain wasn't gone.  
"What were you doing in here?" she asked.  
"I... um... I was looking for somewhere to sit down... and you were taking a while... um. I guess I accidentally fell asleep..." I felt my face burn and looked at where my sandals fell off. Thank goodness there were no marks on the couch. She shrugged and left. I look to Kid and tried not to blush anymore than I'm sure I was. "I wanted to ask you something, it's sort of important." He nodded for me to continue, but he seemed uneasy. "Is there some sort of school protocol or whatever, that required someone be free in case of subbing?" He narrowed his eyes at the strange question.  
"Not that I'm aware of..." he said slowly. My heart not just broke, it shattered.  
"Um, okay. So. If another teacher became free suddenly during the time we train, would they be our teacher instead, or what?" I bit my lip. He realized what I was getting at. My lip began to tremble. I sincerely hoped he hadn't lied to me. He glanced towards the door, and back, sighing.  
"I... haven't exactly been truthful with you." My eyes lost focus. So he had lied. I waited for him to continue, but he stayed silent.  
"So you lied," I said. I wanted to ask him for the truth, but the shock of it was bringing me close to tears that I no longer wanted to shed with him around. I turned to leave, but of course I had no idea where I was going. He lightly touched my arm and began to show the way.  
"Why?" I asked along the way. I felt a few tears come out and I knew it wouldn't be long before I was going to burst.  
"I don't have the time to explain it now..." he said. "But after training I can explain. Okay?" I looked down.  
"Sure." We reached the front door. I noticed it had begun to rain. Lovely. I ran off, ignoring the umbrella kid offered to me. I like the rain anyway. I arrived at the training site finally, drenched. We didn't work too hard today, mainly since everybody was constantly slipping in the mud.  
"What were you doing at Kids?" Kurtis asked me with a hint of a smile. I would have punched his arm playfully if I wasn't already transformed.  
"Well, I wanted to talk to him, but I fell asleep," I laughed. I'd tell him about Kid when I knew the truth. Or if he asked. Whichever came first. His shot missed the tree, but curved back to hit the tree behind it.  
"You fell asleep?!"  
"Well I didn't sleep well last night and they took forever coming and the couches were really comfy," I defended myself. It was all in good fun anyway. "Nice curve by the way. It was a good save." There was a small silence. "So but oh man you would not believe the dream I had!" I waited for a second before continuing. "I was in this diner and I was talking to Kid, only it wasn't kid, it was like... my inner me, or something. And it gave me this weird riddle to solve," my voice became less excited. What had the riddle meant, anyway? I tried to remember it for him. "Communication... reflections... um... friends and foes, and um... there was something about forgetting the other half of the coin."  
"Weird," Kurtis responded.  
"And then I like, asked if I had a time limit, and he told me my reflection decided that."  
Before we had time to ponder it more, Kate walked up and motioned for us to follow her. she had us follow her deeper into the woods, where she was going to teach us how to find food if we were ever separated. By the time dinner came around, I was confident that if I ever became lost, I could survive on berries. The next day I went shopping. I'd never thought of myself as a very skilled shopper, as I always either don't spend anything or feel I've spent too much. I think the only time I've ever been fully satisfied with a shopping trip was when my sister took me to a book store and I found an Artemis Fowl comic. They called it a graphic novel, sure, but a comic is a comic, no matter what label you give it. However, as I recall it now, my sister ended up paying, and I felt guilty about that, so I suppose even that shopping trip wasn't truly satisfactory. I sighed as I watch Kate browse through rack after rack of clothes. I was glad she hadn't asked me to try anything on yet. There were only two places where I actually got something. One was when we stopped at a cafe and I got a drink. The other was the children's store. Call me childish-  
"You're such a little kid," Zaydie poked me as I picked out a teddy bear. Hey, at least let me finish my thoughts. I chose a square-shaped duck that doubled as a pillow, next.  
"You already have a pillow," Kate commented. Now _she_ was the one who was standing around awkwardly.  
"You can have it, I prefer small pillows. Hmm, what should I call you?" I looked at his cute little face. "Jephry!"  
"Geoffrey?" Zaydie raised her eyebrow.  
"No, Jephry."  
"That's what I said!"  
"You said it with a G."  
"How else is it spelled?!"  
"J-E-P-H-R-Y," I giggled.  
"And you," I lifted the bear as Zaydie's palm reached her face, "shall be Pierre!" That was about the highest point of the day. I noticed Zaydie only got black clothes. I wondered how she could stand only wearing black in a desert. The next day was Monday. How the weekend had passed so fast! Before training we signed up for our missions. I was slightly nervous about the mission. Plus, I was also nervous about what Kid was going to tell me after training. I was a bit too nervous, I realized, as I transformed and Kurtis grabbed me.  
"Hey, the resonance is off," he said. He was right, of course. Actually, ever since I talked with Kid I'd been nervous. I'm not sure if Kurtis noticed, but it was also strained on Saturday. It was a bearable strain, though, so we continued. We decided to focus on physical attacks since we were going on a mission tomorrow. Transforming to human usually didn't help in the middle of a mission. I got lost in my thoughts, many times, much to Kurtis's annoyance. He could feel that I was apologetic though, so he didn't say anything. By the end of training, even though our resonance was strained, Kurtis was much more skilled at using my bladed form. After lunch it was slightly harder since I had to focus to help him create arrows, but it still wasn't too much of a challenge. We were able to hit a target from quite a distance, though it was more difficult. Also, the further it was, the more energy faded from the arrow as it flew. We'd have to work on that. I sighed as I transformed back to human, when we were finally done.  
"You've been really distracted today," Kurtis finally said. I could tell he was curious as to why.  
"Yeah, I... I'll tell you after this, just... one sec." I stood up and saw Kid standing at the edge of the clearing. I could tell he was trying to figure out how to tell me... tell me what? I walked over. Mid-stride, something... I don't know what.... but something happened. The corners of my vision felt... not fuzzy, but not entirely normal. My hearing deadened, and almost sounded watery, except I wasn't really hearing anything. Kid motioned to me with his hand, and I followed him, ignoring the strange thing that's going on. We were a few steps further into the forest when he stopped. Suddenly my vision cleared again, giving me a slight headache, I winced and held my head, as my hearing returned as well.  
"Are you okay?" Kid- when had he gotten behind me?  
"I'm fine," I said. I was. The headache was, mysteriously, gone. "What's going on?" I got right to the point.  
"As you know, recently you've been the target of a witch. Being freshman, you have almost no experience fighting even kishin eggs, much less a witch. Even people with years of experience sometimes can't take a witch," he explained. "That's what this training is for."  
I was silent for a second. "I already got that part... why are you my teacher?"  
"I'm not just your teacher," he said. I took a moment to compute this. Teacher, yes. Classmate, yes. Boyfriend, no. What else could he be? I'm quite certain he wasn't related to me.  
"Have you not noticed?" he asked.  
"Noticed what?" I snapped. Whoops. I didn't mean to do that. I mentally apologized, but I suspected he could see it from my face anyway.  
"Out of all the students, I tend to be around you, and your friends, more than any others. Sometimes more than even my own friends."  
"What?" Sure, we'd bumped into each other an eerily high number of times, but the only reason he'd be with me, more than them, was if his teaching us was his only social time. Come to think of it, that would seriously stink.  
"I'll try a different approach. If you were asked to have protection from Sasha, would you accept?"  
"No." Of this I was sure. I didn't know what made me answer so quickly, as my reasoning only came to me seconds later. It's also pretty slim reasoning. Despite what I wanted to think, I _was_ pretty weak. And I didn't really have that many friends that would laugh anyway. Actually, I didn't think anybody other than Zaydie would laugh. So why _would_ I refuse it? I had no good reasons to. Kid spoke again before I could continue this self debate.  
"For the past while, I've been protecting you all. When you came on Saturday, and Liz came to get me, I was on my way to the forest."  
"You've been stalking me?!" I backed up a step. Wrong move, I tripped on a root. There was a loud crash. Ow... I warily took Kid's outstretched hand.  
"Tell me you didn't watch the dorms at night or something," I said, brushing the dirt off my hands. Kid subconsciously adjusted my pants.  
"No, we felt that if something happened at night, Zaydie would be able to fend her off. She dislikes physical attacks, in any case. And she knows about Kate's... condition." I nodded.  
"So... all this training, it's been a way for you to keep an eye on us?"  
"Yes."  
"Wait, so why are you only teaching Kurtis and I?" He seemed reluctant to answer this one.  
"I can only teach one partnership at a time."  
"Something tells me it's more than that," I said softly.  
"Are you sure you want to know?" he asked.  
"Of course I am." There was a tone of defiance in my voice.  
"Very well. If there was a situation where the partnerships were to be separated from each other, your group would be the one in need of most protection." Ouch, was he saying we were weak?  
"I didn't think we were _that_ far behind the others," I muttered. I sat down on a log and absentmindedly kicked the leaves and dirt.  
"So what if we're _all_ separated?" I suspected he'd be protecting Kurtis. I mean, I could make my arm a blade. He, well... he couldn't really do anything. The thought made me laugh. What Kid said next stopped me midlaugh.  
"I'd try to protect you." I must've been hearing wrong. My foot stopped kicking the leaves.  
"You're kidding."  
"No."  
"But I can partially transform! Kurtis would be completely useless! Aren't you supposed to help the weakest, or something?" He sighed. He _did_ warn me that I didn't want to know.  
"While you _would_ have an easier time defending yourself, I'm to protect whoever would aid Sasha the most, should they get captured alive."  
"I would never help Sasha." My voice dripped with hate.  
"And yet, you're the only one she can force to." My head snapped up. I began to ask how, but he was already answering. "If you don't transform, she infects you like she did Kat. And yet, if you _do_ transform, she can use Kat to hold you."  
"Kat might be able to wield me, but that doesn't mean I can help Sasha."  
"All she needs to do is divide you and infect you with the poison again," he said, crushing me. "What awed most was indeed a secret weakness. Perhaps that's the way it is for all things. With power comes responsibility. And, perhaps, weakness."  
"Once your soul can't take it, you'll automatically be transformed into a human. After that it's a simple infection and you're gone."  
"Stop," I told him, looking at my sandals. I stood and brushed past him to tell the others.


	19. Chapter 19

### Kurtis

"Well...?" I asked Nik as she returned from talking to Kid. She seemed really out of it today.  
"Well, basically, on Friday, I was in the infirmary... and they had to call Stein in, so Spirit went to sub for him."  
"Okay..." I waited for her to continue.  
"I went to Kid's house on Saturday cause he said there were no free teachers. He was busy, so he told me he'd talk to me today."  
"So you're saying he either lied, or he's hiding something?" I asked.  
"Uhm, well. Y....yes? It's like, he's basically protecting us, in case Sasha attacks us. Cause we're like, newbies and stuff." She explained.  
"He doesn't think we can fend for ourselves?"  
Nik laughed sharply. "Honestly, a couple weeks ago, we couldn't. But like, this is a witch, so I get why they're being cautious."  
"I guess that explains this special training, too." I realized out loud.  
"Eh? You didn't know this was for that?"  
"Well, I assumed cause we were new to the school..." I stopped myself before I started to sound too dumb. I really should have been paying attention when this training was explained.  
"I really wish there was a desk somewhere around so I could facedesk. But there isn't. So I'll just have to make do with a facepalm." She said, facepalming.  
"But anyways, that's what was bugging you so much that you couldn't concentrate today?" I tried to change the subject back. She must have really been bothered by Kid lying to her, seeing how much her concentration was off.  
"Mhm. I guess this means he's gonna be coming with us on our mission, too. I'm going to go tell Bill and Mike," She said, leaving to explain it to them.  
Our first mission began the very next day. We were catching an early flight to South Dakota, which meant an extra early bedtime for me. The mission was simple enough, we were to find and defeat a guy named Liberos Libellule. We tracked him down for most of the day, asking around town about him.  
"It's said he eats the souls of innocent women," an old man offered. "I wouldn't mess with him if I were you though."  
"Thanks, but-" I was cut off by Nik.  
"We're part of Shibusen, we can handle ourselves!" she said proudly.  
"Well, if you say so. He's been attacking pretty much every evening, you can tell from the screams. About time someone was sent over to deal with him."  
"So what's this Liberos dude look like?" Nik asked, sounding professional.  
"Well, I'm not sure really. I know he's got long hair dyed a weird colour. Nobody really knows much else about him."  
"Interesting..." Nik said aloud, and I could almost see her noting this down in her head.  
"Well thanks for your help. We'll wait until evening then." I said. "So what now? It's what, 4 o’clock., he probably won't strike for another few hours."  
"We should like, do a stakeout after dinner, at the most popular place girls go to!" Nik beamed.  
"And that is..?"  
"Umm... karaoke maybe? I know I really like karaoke."  
"No, we need to be able to hear the scream." I argued, trying to avoid having to sing karaoke all night.  
"Okay, so then... the shopping district... I guess." Nik sighed, with a deflated look.  
"If you say so."  
We browsed the nearest mall for an hour or so, but neither of us were focused too much on buying anything. We split up for a bit, browsing different sections of the mall. I checked out a shirt I liked, but upon seeing the price tag I quickly shoved it back. I ended up at the food court, looking through the various fast foods they offered. I'm not one for eating fast food though, so I gave up my search for a meal to go find Nik. She was muttering to herself angrily about going shopping while we should be on a mission or something, and I noticed a strange guy approach her. I ran ahead to see what was going on.  
"What's a sexy girl like you feeling so down about?" He asked, leaning one arm on the wall and staring at her with a creepy smile.  
She backed up a step, stuttering as she spoke. "I- I'm looking for, um. Someone." I could feel her discomfort from here. She glanced warily at his hair, which was long and black, streaked with red and orange.  
"Well you don't need to look any further, cause you just found your dream guy." He smiled even more at her.  
"Uh, sorry to disappoint.. but my dream guy doesn't really have red and orange hair..." She suddenly spots me and dashes over. "Hey Kurtis!" She seemed relieved to see me. The guy walked over to us, apparently unphased by the obvious rejection.  
"Hey, you don't happen to be Liberos Libellule, do you?" I asked him. Nik crossed her fingers.  
"I can be anybody you want me to be..." he stared straight into my eyes suggestively. I noticed he had red eyes, just like Zaydie's.  
"Listen, it's a yes or no question," Nik spoke up bravely. "Are you or aren't you?"  
"Well, if you have to know, yes. I am. And you are..?"  
"Going to eat your soul! Just as, uh, soon as we go somewhere that I won't hurt anybody." Nik answered.  
"Ooh, kinky," He clicked his tongue. "In fact, I was actually planning on kidnapping you and eating your soul!" Man, this guy was a creep.  
"Um. Right. Kurtis. You better not fail me. Let's go." Nik said sheepishly, walking towards the exit. She kept one eye constantly looking over her shoulder to watch him. I half expected Liberos to make a break for it, but he just smiled and followed behind. We arrived at the parking lot.  
"Is this good enough for you? Or do you wanna go somewhere more... private?"  
"No, this place is good." Nik answered, getting ready to fight.  
"Wait a second..." he stopped us suddenly and frowned. "Someone's following us."  
"Oh, that would be my guardian angel." Nik laughed. "Don't worry about him, he won't interfe-" Our breaths were suddenly knocked out as he jumped towards us and started carrying us away. He leapt nimbly from rooftop to rooftop, zigzagging through the town until we got to the outskirts of town. He took us deep into the woods, until we finally arrived at a small clearing with an old shack nearby.  
"Is that your place?" I asked him, motioning to the broken down house.  
"No, I just bring people over to it sometimes for some privacy. Now, ready to get down to business?"  
"Let's just get this over with." Nik said, transforming into a bow. I couldn't help but feel nervous, I was pretty sure he was a vampire, and he had just carried us at least a mile in under a minute. He wouldn't exactly be easy to fight with that sort of speed.  
“Neat little trick! What else can you do?”  
“So what's the plan?” I asked, ignoring him.  
“What? I thought you had a plan!”  
“I did, but I didn't realize he can move that fast!” I glanced up at him, he was standing with his arms crossed, waiting patiently. Was this it? Was this how we were going to die?  
“I've got a plan. Hey, Liberos!” Nik called out to him.  
“Hm?” He smiled. He could tell we weren't quite ready to fight yet, and he seemed to be waiting for us to make the first move.  
“Your eyes are looking kinda pink, you know that?” she bluffed. She was lying, of course, his eyes looked blood red. But maybe this guy was like Zaydie and got pink eyes sometimes.  
“Oh, they are? How do you like 'em?” he taunted. He didn't care what colour his eyes were.  
“Uh...” she stammered. “Well that didn't work. What now?” she asked hopefully.  
“Blade form,” I answered, splitting her in half. “I use one blade to block, the other to strike. Like Sid taught us.” I just finished speaking when Liberos leapt forwards, readying a strike. Instinctively, I raised both arms, blocking the attack with both blades. CLANG!  
“Ew, get me out of his mouth!” Nik yelled.  
“Yum.” He smiled at us. I tried to act quickly and raised a blade to attack, but he was too fast. He swiped me to the ground with one arm, and I barely managed to hold onto Nik.  
“Kurtis!” she called.  
“I'm fine,” I assured her, picking myself up off the ground. Liberos crossed his arms and smiled, waiting for me to get back up. I realized right then that we had no chance against him. He was just playing with us, like a cat plays with a mouse before killing it. It looked like our only hope was Death the Kid showing up on time and saving our butts.  
“Don't think like that,” Nik ordered. For a second I forgot that she could feel my emotions. I tried to think more positively. He was unarmed, that was something. And if he made a mistake or we discovered a weakness we might be able to beat him. I felt the fear leaving me slightly. This time, I jumped at him.  
“Yaah!” I yelled, swiping with both blades at once. My plan was to block with a blade if he tried to strike, then use the other to hit him. Instead, he simply sidestepped the attack. I felt something hit my back and found myself on the ground again. I jumped up and spun around to face him again.  
“This is starting to get boring,” he taunted. “Let's get to the action.” He ran at me again. I put a blade up, hoping to block whatever attack was coming. Maybe he'd just run straight into it and die, wouldn't that be nice. But nope, he swatted it out of the way and grabbed both arms, pinning me up against a tree. He began to lean in, and for a split second I thought he was about to kiss me. No, his fangs were bared and he was going straight for my neck! I thrashed around and managed to get my right arm free, and fell to the ground. He subdued me again, but this time my arm was blocking my neck. That didn't stop him though. He was about to bite my arm when Nik spoke up.  
“Loosen your grip on me.” Nik ordered. Whoops, I guess I had a deathgrip on her. I loosened my grip and to both Liberos's and my surprise, she transformed back to human. Well, mostly human.  
“Wha...” he gasped, looking down. Nik managed to appear between us, and keep one arm as a blade, which was now plunged deep into his stomach. He began laughing, and leaned forward.  
"Hmm, that hurts, love. Not that I mind... Would it be possible to move your blade a bit... lower?" he whispered into her ear. He grabbed her shoulder just beyond the blade and she jerked back, transforming as she moved. I instantly split her into dual blades. I wasn't sure how badly he was hurt, but judging from his laughter I guessed it wasn't too bad. I was done with these games. Almost without thinking, I swung a blade straight for his neck, before he could even react. I must have swung pretty hard, because his head was cut clean off. For a second, I almost didn't believe it, but when his dark red soul was floating in front of us I knew we'd won. Nik transformed to human. She swallowed the soul and began giggling. 1 down, 98 more to go. Plus a witch's soul, of course.  
“Uh...” I wondered as she giggled.  
“Okay, you know that feeling where I feel like I don't wanna do anything but laugh?” She asked. “It's almost like that feeling but a little different. And indescribable.”  
“Say... do you think you can catch vampirism from getting vampire blood all over you?” I noticed blood all over the right side of her shirt.  
“I dunno, man. Do my eyes look red to you?” she snickered. Something seemed off about her.  
“No, they're blue, like normal.” I said, checking out her eyes. I saw them flash purple.  
“Kat?!” She called to the thin air, taking off into the woods.  
“Where? Wait, Nik, where are you going?” I called, chasing after her. Kid showed up on his board.  
“What happened? Are you two alright?” he asked, sounding concerned.  
“Yeah, we're fine. We just beat Liberos,” I paused, hoping to be praised, but Kid said nothing. “...and Nik suddenly saw Kat or something, and ran off after her.”  
“Well I sensed a witch's soul. Right in the direction Nik's headed.”  
“Oh no.”  
“I'll catch up to her and see what's going on, you meet us there.” He sped ahead. I noticed another cottage up ahead in the woods, and if I wasn't mistaken Nik ran straight into it. Within seconds, Kid arrived at the entrance and stepped in, with me a few steps behind.  
“I can't believe I finally found you, Kat!” I heard Nik say from inside. I stepped beside Kid, who stood there stunned. Nik was inside the house, hugging a slightly uncomfortable looking Sasha!  
“Hello, Kurtis. Hello, Kid.” Sasha greeted us. A cage shot out of the ground, trapping both Kid and I inside.  
“Yeah, and then we can have ice cream!” Nik said. Obviously Sasha had managed to get a bug into her head.  
“And anyways...” Sasha continued. “Before we begin, I advise you not to try anything. Wouldn't want poor 'Snick' to get hurt, would we?”  
“Come on, let's go home now! Bill and Mike will be so happy.” Nik laughed.  
“Go to sleep.” She ordered, and immediately Nik blinked sleepily and fell to the ground.  
“What did you do to her?” I demanded.  
“Don't worry, I still need her... but if you'd rather she stays alive I advise you listen to what I have to say.”  
“Not... the fish...” Nik mumbled in her sleep.  
“I need to speak to you in private, though.” Sasha said, looking straight at me.  
“Why?!” I asked.  
“Because,” She laughed. “I have a deal. But Kid has no part in this.”  
“I'm not leaving you alone with her.” Kid asserted.  
“There's no need for that.” Sasha said with an evil laugh.  
“What do you mean?” I asked.  
“Stick this in your ear, we'll be able to talk without Kid overhearing.” She threw a large purple bug through the cage, which landed on my hand. I was tempted to squash it.  
“He won't fall for that.”  
"Don't worry, it isn't like the one in Nicole. That one simply messes with your senses. This one is a communicative one." Sasha asserted. I stared at the mantis in my hand.  
“No way. He won't do it,” Kid urged.  
“Do you really care that little about Nik's well being? Or Kat's?”  
“Look, I'm not about to-”  
“I'll do it,” I looked up at Sasha, who chuckled. “But first.”  
“Yes..?”  
“Five minutes. After that, you remove the bug. And if you don't, Kid will break out of the cage and kill you where you stand.”  
“Brave words... but it won't even be three.”  
“Kurtis – no!” Kid urged.  
“It's a deal.” I decided, and the bug flew out of my hand and towards my ear. I must be crazy.


	20. Chapter 20

### Sasha

"I love it when they go willingly." I grinned and commanded the bug to fly into his ear. He didn't even try to stop it! Since he was willing, the bug was able to do a lot more than the bug I managed to get into Nik's ear.   
I had looked for an opportunity to get the bug into her for days. Most of the time, she was safe at training or in class. She shared a room with a werewolf, so striking at night was too risky. I was only able to get her alone when she went to Kid's house, and sat down by an open window. It was almost like an invitation.   
I pulled out the sensor-type bug, and it sent a drowsy wavelength towards her. When she finally fell asleep, it was a simple matter of having it fly in. I'd learned from last time, though, and put it deep inside her head, not just in her ear where it could be dug out. I felt her subconscious copy information from it, and immediately cut it off so that her conscious mind wouldn't figure it out. I still had to wait for my chance, but when she signed up for her mission, I noted the town. Perfect, my mother owned a cottage there. If I recalled correctly, I could even set up a few traps with little difficulties.   
After her training, I did a quick test on the bug by having her believe Kid was walking her further into the woods than he was. It worked, despite the long distance, so I was confident it would work even better after she finished her mission. From there, it was as simple as making her believe Katherine was running towards the cottage.  
I chuckle as Kurtis allows the bug into his ear. I've secretly hidden a smaller bug inside the one I gave him. The large one will simply communicate between us, as agreed, but the smaller one will make sure he isn't planning anything else.  
 _"I'm in. Can you hear me?"_  
"Yeah," he said. Kid looked at him quizzically.  
 _"Not out loud, you fool."_  
 _"Oh,"_ he thinks towards me. Ah well, not everyone can be as mentally adept as I.  
 _"I'd like to propose a deal,"_ I began.   
_"Go on."_ I frowned. He didn't even give me the chance to begin. How impatient. I felt him wondering if the bugs would affect his decision making.  
 _"First off, no, the bugs will not affect your decision. Secondly, I'm suggesting a trade. You wish to have your friends back, right?"_  
"Of course I do."  
 _"Not out loud!!"_ He really wasn't getting it. I noticed Kid inching towards the edge of the cell, presumably to attempt a rescue with Nicole. A glare let him know he shouldn't do that.  
 _"Right. Sorry. You were saying?"  
"As you know, I have both Katherine and Nicole. With me, of course, I only have Nicole, in case this deal turns sour. Before you even think it, I would not suggest trying to bring me back for interrogation, as at that point I know I will likely be forced to reveal Katherine's location. Due to this, I will have nothing to lose, and will most likely kill her. Do I make myself clear?"_ He was nervous. Good.  
 _"Yes."  
"Alright. What I am proposing is that you make no moves to stop me from leaving here, with the boy standing next to you. In return, I'll release Nicole and tell you where to find Katherine."  
"How can I trust you? How do I know you won't give the wrong location for Kat?"  
"Because, I will have no use for Kat once I have him."_ I give another pointed look to Kid.  
 _"And if I refuse?"_ I sighed to myself. They never make it simple. I could sense that he was wary to accept. I understood, what would Death say if he knew that Kurtis had willingly let his son get kidnapped?  
 _"Well, I've built the cage so it'll take both of you at least a couple minutes to get out. By that point, Nicole will be coming with me, by her own will, too."_ Even if this plan doesn't work, she'll still work as bait for the next trap, like Katherine was for this one.  
 _"So I don't really have a choice, do I?"  
"Well, you do. But I'm relatively sure of what it will be, since I've heard how Katherine thinks of you all."_ I smiled. He's uncomfortable, but relieved that his friend is still well enough to think of them.  
 _"Well..."_ he began. He was still reluctant, but as I'd told him, the bugs do not affect his decisions. _"I've made my decision. Take the bug out."_ He said this out loud, and I removed one of the bugs. I kept the other inside, just in case.  
 _"Well?"_ I asked, smiling. I squatted down and stroked Nik's hair. He wanted to yell at me, tell me to stop, but of course he did neither. His mind was desperately trying to think of a safe way out for all of them, including Katherine.  
"I..." I felt a plan begin to form in his head. He planned on having Kid fight back the moment the cage opens, just before allowing me to infect him. Such a faulty plan. It had so many holes, Swiss cheese would be jealous. All I'd need to do is use the bug still in him to knock him out for a few hours, before he could even tell Kid to fight back. Even if he did fight back, though, I very much doubted he would be able to do anything.  
"The steak... go for the steak..." Nicole mumbled, moving slightly away from me. I pulled her back, if I let her fall down the stairs, Kurtis would definitely protest. I believe Kid would probably begin to break the cage, too. If that started happening I would have to flee without him.   
"I agree. It's a deal."  
"Perfect," I grinned, and summoned up all the mantises I could without releasing Katherine from her sleep-like trance so far away. I regret not simply putting her in a cell, but it didn't matter. What I had should suffice. "Kid, could you come here please?"  
"I really hope you know what you're doing..." Kid muttered. I almost laughed, because he does not. He underestimated me severely.  
"Trust me. I do. Don't fight back." Kid gave him a wary look, but steps up to the side of the cage. I watched his hands. He is much too trusting of Kurtis, and isn't doing anything to stop me. I began to raise my hands, but sensed Kurtis was about to warn Kid to stop. I ordered the bug inside him knock him out. Before his body could hit the floor, I flooded Kid's mind with every bug I could spare. He took it relatively well, and didn't even fall.   
"Alright. We're leaving now." I opened the door and he followed obediently. His eyes tinted purple as well. I stopped when we get outside. Something wasn't right. Unfortunately, I had to search and find which mantis is attempting to alert me. I found it after only seconds, but seconds was too long, as I realized what has happened. Somehow, he had resisted every single one of the bugs, pretending to be under my control. After learning that I was going to my mother, and not Katherine, he had fled back into the house to attempt a rescue on both of the others. Of course, I realized. He knows he can't take more than one witch. I couldn't control him fully, I know, but perhaps I could partially, just for a moment. I sat on my broom and zoomed after him. He already had Kurtis on his back and is headed for Nicole. I stopped his leg functions and he fell. It only took this for me to pass him. It was almost like slow motion. He looked up at me, the wind blowing everything that wasn't anchored down. My hand passed his ear, and every bug leaves at once. He'd have an earache for a week. This next part was tricky. I would have Nicole wake up, but she would be groggy. She won't be able to get on fast enough, not before Kid recovered. I grabbed her by the waist, but it seemed I have also underestimated my opponent. Kid had recovered faster than should be possible, and I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder. I still kept my balance on the broom, but my grip on Nicole faltered. At this speed, I did not have another chance. I left, having gained nothing from this. On the bright side, I was not followed. Even if I was, I could switch my direction to Mother's house, and we could easily take him. I arrived shortly at the building she'd offered me to use, when I'd told her of my previous failure. Katherine looked up when I entered.  
"It failed, didn't it?" she smiled cockily. "Told you they would beat you." Tired of losses, I put the mantises back into her head.  
"Next time it won't," I hissed. My mind began to formulate another plan. "I doubt your friends would be willing to harm you." I felt Nicole's mind begin to clear. I'd almost forgotten she had a mantis in her, too. I watched from Nicole's perspective.  
"What... what happened?" She looked around at the messy hallway. Kurtis was lying against a wall and Kid was leaning against the wall below the window, exhausted. Perhaps I should not have fled so quickly. If I went back now, though, he will have recovered. It was nice to know that I have done this, though. "Kid?" She crawled over and placed her hand on his shoulder.  
"Sasha," he breathed almost silently. He was still attempting to breathe normally again. He sat up straighter, finally appearing to be his old self once more. "We need to get out of here. Can you transform?" I felt her nod, and do so. He stuck each half of her in a pocket. Strange, she doesn't protest. Perhaps she trusted him to put her back. He walked to Kurtis and, after a bit of struggling, got him on his back. To my shock, they didn't head to the airport. Instead, they arrived at a hotel, where he checked in for them. The receptionist didn't even look up. I learned the room number, just in case. 324. Inside there were two beds and a cot. Kurtis was laid on the far bed. He wouldn't wake for hours, I know. When Kid dropped him, his head hit the wall. Hard. Nicole was pulled out of the pockets and connected. She transformed and immediately went to the bathroom to wash up. I noticed some things about her that I hadn't noticed, somehow, when she was sleeping at my feet. First, there is some green on her shirt, which brings me to the conclusion that her shirt was not red, and that the red is blood. I began to wonder about how missions are chosen for an individual. After showering and changing into pyjamas, Kid told her the events of the past few hours. I began to formulate a plan. They couldn't have him protect her forever. I could simply wait and build up my power until they decided she was safe. Then, when she was alone, I shall attack.   
For a split moment I debated having her leave in the middle of the night. But how would I get her out...? I know I've decided to wait until she has no protection, but I had a crucial advantage right now while I had a bug in both Kurtis, and her. I heard a sudden knock on the door, and suddenly realized it's my door, not Nicole's. I stood and open it to find my mother.  
"What are you doing here?" I frowned.  
"What, I can't visit my daughter every now and then?" I sighed. She'll probably want to stay for a meal, or something.  
"You're lucky you didn't come an hour earlier, I was out."  
"Working on the Shibusen project?"  
"Of course. I've devoted all my time to this project since I even went to Shibusen," I said. I could tell she was still unsure of whether or not my tactics would work. She was anxious to simply get the boy and go, before he became more powerful. After all, he did help to defeat the kishin.  
"So how is the current situation?"  
"Well... Not well. I was right when I said that we could get him through Nicole, but he was more powerful than I thought and was almost able to get to both of the others before I could even do anything." She studied me.  
"Well.... I could help you. But, then, I did tell you that you were on your own for your first shot, didn't I?" I was proud that she hadn't dismissed my current efforts as a failure, yet.   
"Don't worry, Mother, if I need your help, I'll send Jenny a message. You are using a hidden place, correct?" When we'd been making this plan, we decided, just in case they knew of my mother, that Jenny would watch the house while Mother stayed in a secret house elsewhere. I wasn't to know where, again, just in case. We were fairly certain that Shibusen had no knowledge of my sister.  
"Yes, of course. I gave Jenny a visit just before coming here. She's doing very well, but misses you."  
"Well I can't very well visit her. What if I were to be spotted?" Now that I think of it, my mother is also taking the chance of being spotted. I let it go; nobody knew what this building is used for. And I take precautions when entering to be sure I am unseen. "Tell her I send my greetings, or something." I tried to wave her away.  
"Are you really going to kick me out so fast? I've just barely gotten here!" I sighed. I'm not getting rid of her for a while. I suppose I'd have to be patient and wait for Nicole's protection to be called off, after all. I should make use of this downtime, perhaps train myself to control more mantises. Better yet, I could test the potential I've seen with Katherine, and learn to fight properly. I was slightly tired of people finding ways out of my flawless traps. They didn't even realize how hard it is for me to set them up. I mean, you don't just snap your fingers and have a giant cage, set to come down. No, next time, I think I'll fight with Katherine. Besides, I'd seen them train, and they're definitely beginners. I sat back and relaxed, grinning to myself. This wouldn't be as hard as I've been making it out to be, after all.


	21. Chapter 21

### Nik

I woke up before either of the boys, which wasn't too surprising after what Kid had told me happened. I turned to Kurtis as he began to wake up. When saw me he smiled, but I didn’t. I slapped him right in the face, and I think the sound almost woke up Kid, since he started to stir right then.  
“Oww, what was that for?” he protested.  
“For thinking you could get away with trading Kid for me!” Kid sat up behind me and rubbed his eyes sleepily.  
“I didn't want you to get hurt,” he mumbled. “Besides, I had a plan so that we would all get out fine.” I glared. Kid shuffled to the bathroom to brush his teeth.  
“From what Kid told me, you asked him to go willingly.”  
“I was going to tell him to stop, as soon as I saw her raise her arms.”  
“So why didn't you?”  
“I... something happened. I don't know what.” Just then, Kid stepped out from the bathroom.  
“There'sh a bug in him, too,” he said, fairly well, considering he was still brushing his teeth.  
“I thought she took it out, though.”  
“There wash a shecond one. We didin shee it.”  
“Oh,” I whispered to myself. “That doesn't excuse the fact that you almost accepted!” I smacked Kurtis on the head again.  
“Oww, was that really necessary?” he put his hand to his head gingerly.  
“Hmph,” I crossed my arms and turned away dramatically. “I'm going to go eat breakfast,” I said, leaving. I've never seen the point of brushing your teeth right before you eat, anyway. It's like washing your hands right before you go outside to play with mud.   
After breakfast we barely made our flight. I spent the time on the plane in silence, not wanting to talk to Kurtis. What if Kid hadn't been powerful enough to overpower all those bugs? She would have run off and neither of us would have been conscious to chase after her. I wondered why they would want Kid. Well actually, it wasn’t too hard to think of a list of reasons. He's Lord Death's son, for once. A Death god. Maybe that was why he was able to fend off the bugs. Plus, he'd been prepared for it.  
“It's kind of creepy how she was able to read my thoughts,” Kurtis said, interrupting the silence. I rolled my eyes to myself, still ticked off at him.  
“There's no reason she still wouldn't be able to,” Kid offered. Now that was a scary thought. What if she could read my thoughts, too? Oh no, what if she knew I had a crush on Kid?! Wait, maybe that was why she even wanted me in the first place. After all, she'd told us that once she had Kid, she had no use for me.   
I felt Kurtis's discomfort from across the aisle. This whole trip had been creepily uncomfortable. Worse, I'd severely stained my shirt. So now I looked like a mass murderer, at least whenever I wore that shirt. I obviously had a backup shirt. Regardless, I shuddered at the memory of how it had gotten that way.   
About an hour later, the plane landed. After quickly dropping our luggage off at our respective places, we climbed the stairs and headed towards the Death room to see what we could do to get the bugs out.  
“Hey Kurtis, Nik! Good to see you again!” Ida smiled as we walked down the hall. Even just being near Dunny made me totally happy. I think I even inadvertently forgave Kurtis. Hmph.  
“You too,” Kurtis said. I could totally feel the love in the air. They'd make a good couple. I was pretty sure Ida liked him back, too. She was really cool about it if she did.   
I frowned for a second. I could definitely feel that Dunny was nearby, but where? I turned to see if he was somehow behind us.  
“Piggy-back!” I heard him yell, too late. I toppled forward, not prepared for the kid to jump on my back. I was about to say something about telling people before you jump on them, but then we began resonating like crazy and I started giggling. Having a bug in my head was actually kind of funny when I thought about it.   
“You gotta bug?”  
“Uhuh! Isn't it funny?” I laughed. I sat up and we started playing patty cake.  
“Ida always tells me to sign off my games account or I'll get bugs. I don't know if bugs are good.” He put his finger to his mouth and thought for a moment. He looked really funny so I laughed again. But then my head started pounding.  
“Ow, ow, ow!” I held it in my hands and huddled into a ball.  
“Amazing,” Kid whispered. “Ida, use your soul resonance. You see how both Kurtis's and Nik's souls are struggling to emit even a weak wavelength?”  
“Yeah... What the- What is Dunny's wavelength doing to her?” They looked at me all funny. My head wasn't hurting much anymore.  
“Dunny!” I whispered loudly.  
“Yeah?” He was just as loud when he whispered.  
“They're talking about us!” He brought his hands to his face with a shocked expression.  
“I'm confused,” Kurtis said. “It still looks like it's struggling.”  
“Nik-alo!” Dunny called. I raised an eyebrow. “Your secret spy nickname,” he explained, still whispering loudly.  
“What is it, Dunnerom?” I made up a name on the spot. Perfect. We were now official spies.  
“The bugs are gonna take over the internet! We have to save the world!” Of course! How had I not seen it! We discreetly stood up and ran away from the other people. They might have had bugs too! As we stepped outside, I wondered how we should save the world this time.  
“Pirates?”  
“No. Too far back.” Evidently we still knew something of history.  
“Robots?”  
“They don't laugh enough.”  
“You're absolutely right. What about....” I thought for a while. What could we be to save the world from the bugged out web?  
“Aha!” Dunny shouted triumphantly.  
“What is it?” I asked eagerly.   
“We shall be rabbits!”  
“Ooh! That sounds fun! But.... rabbits can't go on the internet.”  
“Hmm, this is a tricky case, indeed. To the detective office where we look over the facts!” We ran off.  
“Boss!”  
“What?”  
“We're being followed!” I worried about this, what if they found the secret office?  
“Alright. It looks like we'll have to do... secret operation number 4.”  
“What's that, again?”  
“I forget. Let's make it up as we go!”  
“Perfect! A flawless plan as always!” We grabbed each other's hands and rushed into a forest full of our bunny friends. They'd slow down the followers for us. “Jump!” I told him. We jumped over a river, splashing on the other side. Wait. No, we didn't make it, I realized, as my cargos soaked in the water.  
“No matter,” Dunnerom said professionally. “Squirrels can't smell past rivers anyway.” Something seemed off about that, but we ran down the river, splashing as much as we could. Suddenly my head hurt again and I tripped, letting go of his hand.  
“Go ahead, Dunnerom! I'll stall for time! Save the world!”  
“No, Nik-alo! It can only be done with my sidekick with me!” He rushed over and picked me up. My head still hurt.  
“Very well. But we must go quick, before I perish!” I cried dramatically. The headache didn't go away like last time. Suddenly it became really, really bad, right in my ear, so bad that we had to stop.  
“Nik-alo?” We stopped playing for a second as he put me down right there in the river. I held my ear, it hurt so much. He pulled my hands off my ear and looked at it. It felt wet, and when he poked some stuff for a second, I could have sworn there was some sort of slime on it. He pulled his hand bad, showing me a purple bug on it.   
“You found the bug!” he grinned. I did too, since my head didn't hurt as much anymore. The bug suddenly fluttered its wings for a second, as if trying to take off, but he squished it, and suddenly it disappeared in a wisp of smoke.  
“Whoo-hoo! We saved the world!” Just then Ida, Kid and Kurtis came, out of breath.  
“God, you guys are fast when you want to be,” Kurtis panted. Ida was breathless, too. Kid looked from me to Dunny to his hand, where a few grains of purple sand still lay. They blew away in the wind shortly, though.   
“We saved the world from the internet bug,” I smile. Maybe we'd get chocolate. Ida seemed to be inspired.  
“Not quite, troops.” Oh, no! “It appears there was a second one. Luckily, we know how to get rid of it, thanks to your brilliant detecting.” The boys looked at Ida funny. She gave them a strange look.  
“How can we do it, Idamer?” Dunnerom asked desperately.  
“Yes, how?” I echoed. Both Kid's and Kurtis's mouths dropped.  
“Um, Nik?” Kurtis asked warily.  
“Shh, I'm getting my orders.”  
“Yes, well,” Ida interrupted, “The way to save the day is by clutching his arms and not letting go.” She pointed at Kurtis. Dunnerom looked at me seriously. We both nodded and approached the bugged boy. However, something suddenly flew out of his ear, all on its own!  
“They knew we were coming!” I cried.  
“After it!” Dunnerom yelled. We chased it, but it flew too high for us to reach. “Hmm, how do we get it now?”  
“We could... um... adventure?” I suggested. It was the most beautiful idea ever.  
“Not yet, troops. There is but one way we can still save the world.” I turned and saw Idamer, with the other troops. While she pauses to make sure we're listening, Dunnerom and I debate the other troops' names.  
“That one's Kurtle. He's part turtle.” I nodded my agreement.  
“And that one?” I pointed at the boy with striped hair.  
“Hmmm..... Egg.”  
“What? How is he an egg?”  
“He's not just any egg. He's an EASTER egg!” I looked at him quizzically. He did have stripes....  
“Very well.”  
“Um, were you even listening?” Idamer asked us.  
“Yes, of course!” Dunnerom said. Well, it wasn’t not our fault if she didn't specify who we were listening to.  
“Alright, then, follow me and we shall carry out our orders!” We followed her for a while.  
“Dunnerom,” I whispered. “What were out orders??”   
“It's just the same thing we do after every mission,” he giggled.  
“Oh, so the same as when we were pirates that one time?” He scratched his head, trying to remember.  
“Uhh... it was.... sometime, or other. But yes.” We walked for a long time until we finally reached a building. Inside, we entered an elevator full of mirrors. I notice Egg and Kurtle came too, when suddenly I saw... a girl... just like me... to my left!  
“Ahh!” I poked her face. But she poked back! Wait! She must be my foe! “Communication, reflection! Friend.... FOE!” I yelled at the mirror and tried to punch her. But Ida pulled me away, saying that we still needed to save the world. “I'll be back!” I called to her, so she knew I would be coming for her. We came to a door that amazingly, Ida already had a key to!  
“Whoa, she already has the boss key,” I breathed. We entered. “Where's the boss?” I was ready for a fight! I looked under a couch cushion. Not there.  
“Here,” Ida gave me a cup of tea. Ooh! Was this the boss? “To defeat him... you have to drink him!”  
“Alive?” I asked. That would be horrifying!  
“No, no, he is not alive anymore. But you must destroy his essence by drinking it.”  
“I see,” we both said. We drank. Mmmm.... “  
Wait... um... what?” I looked up. Then down. I'd almost finished my tea. “Not again...” I noticed Kid still looking at me warily, like I was going to ask how we would save the world tomorrow.  
“That's... an interesting way of resonating.”  
“What even happened?” I still remembered it of course. But playing hero shouldn't have been enough to get rid of the bugs, surely.  
“Well, I'm not 100% sure, but it seems that Dunny's positive energy overwhelmed the bug to the point where it either had to get out or die...” I blinked.  
“That's....” Really cheesy. I looked at Dunny, who, even with the tea, was bouncing in his seat. “Wow. Okay, then.” There was an awkward silence.   
“We should probably get going to training. Bill and Mike are likely waiting.”  
“Would Sid have them wait?” I asked. Regardless of what he would or wouldn't do, we were still missing out on valuable training time, so we all headed back to school. At the stairs, Ida and Dunny went off to class while we headed into the forest.


	22. Chapter 22

“So today, what are we gonna work on?” Nik asks as we reach the clearing.  
“Dunno. I guess we'll see what the others are... whoa.” I notice Bill and Mike, who were in the middle of their resonance. Mike, in scythe form, had nearly doubled in size, and was emitting a glow. For once, Bill had a determined and almost serious look on his face.  
“Why don't you work on your soul resonance today?” Kid suggested, watching as Bill slashed through the air.  
“Sure! I wanna know what my bow resonation will be like, anyway,” Nik said.  
“Actually, I believe you've already managed it,” he replied before I could speak.  
“Wait what?”  
“You don't remember? I told you not to drink so much at that party,” Nik elbowed me.  
“Party? What party?”  
“As I recall, there was no party. You were both unconscious.” Kid informed us.  
“She was joking, Kid.” I laughed.  
“Seriously, though, when _did_ we resonate?” Nik asked.  
“Don't you remember?” Kid looked at her trivially. “At the castle, when you battled Sasha. You told me you made a rope to slow your fall.”  
“Whoa whoa whoa, that was our resonance?” I asked. “I thought that was just a cool trick we did.”  
“Yeah, plus it didn't have a name!” Nik added.  
“Does a resonance really need a name? Like do you really need to yell out the move you're doing before you-”  
“Resonances don't always have names, you know.” Kid interrupted. “Either way, though, I'd like to see you demonstrate it.”  
“Alright, let's try this!” Nik grinned, a determined glint in her eyes. She transformed into a bow and I snatched her from the air. I took aim at a nearby branch and fired a shot straight at it.  
“Uh...” Kid started as the grappling hook we'd fired fell lamely to the ground.  
“Dude, what kind of hook shot has rope?”  
“Hook shot? I thought this was a grappling hook!” I disputed.  
“No, don't you know what a hook shot is? It grabs onto something and pulls it towards us!”  
“Oh, I thought it was a grappling hook to swing on stuff. You know, like we did at the castle.”  
“Psh, if that was a grappling hook, it wouldn't have gotten embedded into the ceiling!” I could feel her mentally facepalming.  
“Well we obviously have different ideas about this resonance. So what is it?”  
“Perhaps you have two resonations. A grappling hook, and a hook shot. When you imagine both, it comes out like this,” Kid suggested, motioning to the lame rope-shaped soul energy laid out in front of us.  
“Let's try again,” I said as the rope dissipated. “Hook shot this time.”  
I took aim and fired again. This time, a chain fired out, with a claw-like hook at the end. It latched firmly onto the branch and I felt a sharp tug. I was pulled rapidly towards the tree, crashing into the trunk. The claw dissipated and I staggered back a step, dazed.  
“Now _that's_ a hook shot! That was more tiring than I thought, though.”  
“Tell me about it. I'm lucky I didn't break something there!” She laughed sheepishly.  
“Well, see, uh, in the video games the character always stops himself with his feet, and then drops...”  
“Well I'm not exactly a video game character, am I?”  
“Obviously, you aren't wearing the hero's green tunic!”  
“You're saying you want me to dress like Link from now on?”  
“Link? Who's Link?” Kid's eyes were swirly circles. Another feature of the AD.  
“You poor, sheltered Kid...” I joked.  
“Whatever you do, don't dress like Link, you won't be able to pull it off.” Nik   
“Yeah, I think you're right. Back to training?”  
“Guess so. Lift your feet this time.”  
“Oh... good idea,” I laughed, looking behind me at the comical drag marks leading to the tree. “Let's try this again. Hopefully I won't crash this time.” I nocked another hook shot arrow and aimed at another tree. I fired again, this time making sure to lift my feet. At least, I tried to. It was harder than I expected to keep my feet lifted off the ground, and I ended up crashing again. At least I was prepared for a collision this time. THUD! I found myself shaking the dizziness out of my head again.  
“I told you to lift your feet.” Nik sounded worn out already.  
“I tried...” I grumbled. “It's not exactly easy.”  
“How about we try the grappling hook, this one's exhausting.”  
“Alright, let's,” I agreed. I took aim at a higher up branch and fired a grappling hook at it. It wound neatly around the branch a few times then locked into place. I gave it a tug. It felt fairly sturdy.  
“Hey, this isn't so hard, after all.” Nik commented. I decided to test the move more, and put my body weight on it. “Oh god, you're heavy!” Unfortunately, she had said this after I'd jumped, and I was already swinging through the air. I made it about a foot before landing on my butt on the forest floor.  
“Ow, what was that for?”  
“You think I did that on purpose?”  
“Well you must've gotten weaker!” I argued. It was a lighthearted argument, of course. We weren't actually mad at each other. She was still exhausted, though.  
“Maybe you’re the weak one! Maybe I need some more power here!” She had a good point actually. I kept forgetting that I had to share energy with her to lessen her strain.  
“Are you alright to go on? Or do you need a break?” Kid asked.  
“I need a break. I'm exhausted.” Nik said.  
“A break? But we just started!” I joked. I wanted a break too, by this point.  
“Give me as much energy as I've been using and you'd be ready for a nap, too.” She transformed and started looking for a soft spot in the grass.  
“Yeah, I don't blame you. Hey, what's for lunch?” I asked, realizing suddenly how hungry I was. Breakfast seemed like it had been ages ago.  
“Lunch isn't for a while. If you want, I can try to train you in hand to hand combat. Then you can fight if your weapon is ever...” he offered, glancing at Nik, who had already started snoring. “...Unavailable.”  
“I'd like to learn to fight by myself, actually. I don't wanna be completely useless without a weapon.”  
“Alright. So what do you already know about fighting?” he asked, taking a fighting stance.  
“Um...” I blinked. I'd never actually thrown a punch at someone before.  
“You know nothing?” He sounded stunned. I guess most people in the EAT class were fairly competent fighters, weapon or not.  
“Not really.” I admitted.  
“In that case, you should talk to Stein.” Kid suggested, going back to a casual stance. “I'm not exactly a teacher. As I said, half the reason I'm training you now is to protect you in case of an attack.”  
“Wait.” Nik sat up. I _knew_ she couldn't fall asleep that fast. “Does this mean we're gonna get some other teacher now since the secrets out?”  
“If you want,” he assured. “I could talk to my father if you would prefer a different instructor.”  
“No, that's totally fine,” Nik urged.  
“Wait a second...” I theorized, “if we switch instructors, we have to wake up an hour earlier right?”   
“I suppose so.” Kid answered. Thank god for his love of the number 8. It meant an extra hour of sleeping in, most instructors would have us start at 7.  
“So it's decided? Kid stays our teacher?” Nik chimed.  
“It's up to you really. “He answered simply.  
“Did I not hint at it enough?” Nik snickered.  
“Alright, I'm staying then.” Kid concluded. Nik fell back into the grass, satisfied.  
“Yes...” I heard her mumble, closing her eyes. I stared at her for a moment before offering to get lunch. I bumped into Stein on the way to the cafeteria. Perfect.  
“Excuse me,” he muttered, pushing past me in a hurry. He was preoccupied with trying to read a small mess of papers.  
“Wait, Stein?” I asked. He paused, straightening up and turning to face me, barely looking up from his papers. “I wanted to do some after-class training, and Kid suggested I talk to you.”  
“I'm free after class today,” he replied after thinking for a moment. “Meet me in my classroom when class is out and I can teach you whatever you need to know.”  
“Great, I'll be there,” I agreed, and Stein hurried off. I picked up our lunches and hurried back to the clearing.  
“Lunch is here!” I called as I neared the group. I could tell Bill was the hungriest, he was the first one grabbing food from me. Nik seemed to be asleep, so I placed a box beside her for when she woke up.  
“What took so long?” Bill asked. I wasn't sure if he was joking or not.  
“I ran into Stein on the way there,” I explained. “I'm going to be taking private lessons to learn to fight on my own. Just in case.”  
“Good idea,” Bill agreed through a mouthful of food.  
I finished my lunch quickly and woke Nik up, who wolfed down her lunch and got ready for more training. The second Nik transformed and was in my hand I felt her worrying about Kat. Maybe she had a dream about Kat during her nap. Either way, I didn't blame her. I was worried sick about Kat too. Neither of us were focused enough to get too much training done, and all we managed to accomplish was having me crash into trees a dozen times or so, much to Nik's amusement.  
“Next time we'll train better,” I promised. “Right now all I can think about is training with Stein.”  
“Yeah, even if you're learning on your own, it'll make it easier for blade combat. I'll see you tomorrow.”  
“Bye!” I waved, running towards the school. Finally, I'd learn to fight on my own! I pushed past the crowd of people exiting the school and made my way to class. Stein was just about to start marking papers when I burst through the door.  
“You're early,” Stein commented, not even turning to look at me.  
“I know. I'm ready to start whenever,” I panted.  
“Great. We can start right away. Now tell me, what do you know about fighting already?” He asked, putting down his pen and turning to look at me. I gave him the same answer I gave Kid.   
“Uhh...”  
“Not too much then. That's alright, we can start with the basics. No need to rush things.” His glasses glinted in the light, reminding me just how creepy Stein can be sometimes.  
“Okay, so what first?”  
“First,” he started, “Your stance. Legs further apart. Now a bit closer. Bend your knees a bit. Not that much. Good enough.” He approached me. I felt strange holding this pose, it didn't feel natural. Without warning, he gave me a quick push, almost knocking me backwards. I barely managed to regain balance and keep myself on my feet.  
“What was-” I began to complain.  
“See? Proper stance makes you a lot sturdier on your feet. Had you been standing normally you would've been on the ground,” Stein noted. “I want you to stand like that for the rest of the lesson, as if you're ready for a fight at any second.”  
“Okay,” I agreed. I could tell already that training with Stein was going to be tough. He was one of _those_ teachers.  
“Good. I'll make sure to tell you whenever your stance is getting lazy.”  
“Alright.” It felt like I was just agreeing with whatever he said at this point. Maybe that's a good thing when you're learning.  
“Let's work on basic blocks. We'll go more in-depth with these in the future, but right now I want you to keep stance without even thinking about it. Speaking of stance...” He stared at my feet, lifting an eyebrow.  
“Huh?” I looked down, making tiny adjustments to my feet.  
“You're doing fairly well actually. I'll teach you a basic block. Arms up, like this,” he motioned, raising his arms up slightly. “And each time you block, switch arms.”  
“Like this?” I asked, trying my best at what he just explained.  
“Not quite. It's more of a sweeping motion. Remember, you're not hitting their arms out of the way, you're guiding their blow away from you.”  
“Yep.” I tried again, trying to keep a smooth motion. Stein looked dissatisfied.  
“That'll... do. For now. You're going to block my punch.”  
“Wait, what?” I objected. I definitely didn't feel ready for this.  
“I'm going to punch, and you're going to block it,” Stein demanded. “Ready?”  
“Y-yes,” I gulped. I guess I had to learn this somehow.  
“Block!” he shouted, throwing a punch straight for my face. I tried to guide his arm away, I really did, but it wasn't as easy as he made it sound. His fist stopped not even an inch from my nose.  
“What happened?” he asked calmly.  
“I... guess I didn't expect to put so much force into blocking,” I concluded. I had almost forgotten how strong Stein actually was. Not to mention he probably slowed that punch down for me.  
“Don't be afraid to hurt your opponent.” I was about to laugh, but Stein kept a straight face.  
“I... yeah okay.”  
“Ready? Again.” Stein threw another punch, and this time I managed to get his fist out of harms way. I felt proud, for about one second, before realizing he didn't stop prematurely like last time. Had I missed this block, I would've been knocked out cold. “Good,” he commented, glancing at my feet. All those years of fencing must've paid off, because I was still in a passable stance.  
“Okay, what now?” I asked.  
“Now, we improve your blocking. You can never be too good at blocking, and right now you're a little sloppy.” The rest of the lesson was mostly improving my block, and a few minor corrections to footwork. As tough as this training was, it was actually a bit of fun.  
“Block!” Stein would say, and I'd block each of his punches. “Block! Block! Block!” It was becoming rhythmical. I guess Stein didn't want rhythmical, because he threw his next punch a bit early, catching me completely off guard. I saw stars, and found myself on the ground.  
“Oww...” I groaned, holding my face. Stein got a good punch right under my left eye.  
“You have to be ready for anything,” he stated.  
“Yeah, I... I guess so,” I muttered, rubbing my face gingerly.  
“I think thats enough for today anyways. I'll see you tomorrow, same time,” he grinned.  
“Uh... okay.” I wanted to ask for a day off or something, but I chickened out of asking. I stumbled out the door and down the hall, dreading the stairs after being so exhausted already. I saw someone familiar at the top of the stairs, their back turned to me. It was Ida! I felt my stomach lurch. I took my hand off my face and straightened up my posture a bit, and let my foot skid the ground to get her attention. She turned and smiled at me.  
“Hey! Funny seeing...” She stopped and frowned at me, looking slightly worried. “What happened?” It took me a second to remember she was talking about my probably bruised face. Somehow I'd forgotten about that.  
“I did some training with Stein,” I explained, “we were doing blocks today.”  
“And I see you still need to work on that,” she laughed.  
“Actually, I was doing pretty well. I blocked almost every punch!” I bragged.  
“Almost,” she smiled.  
“So where's Dunny anyways?” I asked.  
“Hmmm.... down there.” Ida pointed down the staircase, and I saw the small figure of a very hyper boy running up the stairs. “I take him to these stairs to wear him out when he needs to burn off energy.”  
“That's smart,” I laughed, and she laughed in agreement. There was a small silence and I tried to think of something to say.  
“So did you hear?” Ida interrupted my thoughts.  
“Hear what?”  
“Dunny and I are getting assigned to your group!” she exclaimed. I felt my heart skip a beat. I suddenly couldn't wait until our next group lesson!


	23. Chapter 23

### Nik

I went home with Kate and Zaydie. It was sort of weird, not having my old friends with me. But after the stairs, the boys went their way and we went ours.  
“So what did you guys do today?” I asked casually.  
“We did a dissection in the morning, and then in the afternoon we got our teams picked out for the team resonance lessons that are coming up,” Kate replied casually.  
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot about those. Did you find out which team I happen to be on, by the way?”  
“Ours!” she cried happily. “I think this year we might actually have a chance at resonating. Last year we were with Ida’s group and this other guy, and Zaydie just didn’t get along with them, at all. But this year we’re with Bill and your group. Well, and Ida’s.”  
“Four partnerships in a group? I thought there were supposed to be three.”  
“Normally, yeah, but there are an odd number of partnerships this year.”  
“We’re screwed,” Zaydie said optimistically.  
“But… Kate just said…”  
“Do you really think I can resonate with Dunny?”  
“Well… um… how about this, then? You know how Soul and Black Star couldn’t resonate?”  
“Yeah, yeah, they managed to team resonate. But they were all in the elites. You guys are still relatively new.”  
“Hmph, I was just trying to lift the mood.” She shrugged and the conversation fell to a halt. I decided to read up on team resonating when we got to the dorms. “Hey, Zaydie,” I called from my spot on my bed. She barely looked up.  
“Kate already told me.”  
“You haven’t even heard what I was gonna say!”  
“She read the whole book to me out loud.”  
“Hmph,” I grumbled, closing the book and going to the kitchen to make some pasta. It didn’t turn out so bad, much to my relief. I could only imagine what Zaydie would say if she found a crunchy noodle or something. After dinner I didn’t have much to do. I know Kid wasn’t around anymore, since he figured Kate and Zaydie could protect me, but… Truth be told, I didn’t really want to stay inside, nor did I want to drag Kate or Zaydie outside. I went out the front door and went to the forest in the back. It was probably stupid, yeah, but if Sasha showed up, Kate could follow my scent. It was lame reasoning, but I wanted some time for myself. I climbed a tree nearby and sat on a large limb, looking out at the greenery around me.  
I had to admit, at this point I was more… angry, than sad for Kat. I had done everything I could, hadn’t I? I hadn’t overly trusted Sasha or anything, and it wasn’t like I would have been able to fend her off if I’d gotten suspicious. No, I decided, there wasn’t anything I could have done to save her. From the moment we’d found out Sasha was a witch, I’d been doing my best to stop her. I suppose I shouldn’t have expected to win so fast. After all, witches can kill even really experienced partners. I should be glad I was still alive.  
That was another thing. Why did she want me alive? I was pretty certain Kid was her real target, but why would they want him alive? She’d gotten him in a cage that would take time to get out of, so it probably wouldn’t have been too difficult to kill him right there. Maybe she liked him too! Wait, no, that was stupid. So far as I’d seen, I was the only one dumb enough to have a crush on a shinigami.  
I mean, really, he would probably end up outliving me anyway, and I wasn’t even sure shinigamis had ki- Whoa, whoa, whoa! Was I about to think about kids?! Ew! No way! I’m not old enough for that stuff, what was I thinking?  
“Whacha doing?” I almost fell off the tree. I hadn’t heard anyone coming at all. I looked down and saw Zaydie.  
“I- um, I was, just thinking. About stuff,” I stammered out. “What are you doing here?”  
“I go here to think, too.” What a coincidence. I wondered for a split second if Zaydie really didn’t know she was secretly protecting me. But as I climbed down I noticed some of the bushes around had been trampled at some point or another, so her story could very well be true. “What were you thinking about?”  
“I… well… it’s just a crush, really,” I bit my lip, embarrassed. The snicker I was expecting never came.  
“On Kid?”  
“H-how did you-”  
“I heard your other friend tease you about him. Before… y’know.” I nodded, poking my foot at the ground.  
“It doesn’t really matter,” I push out. “He’d never like me back.”  
“Did he tell you that?”  
“Well… no, I don’t know if he actually knows I like hi-”  
“Don’t give up, then.” I looked up, shocked. Was this really Zaydie I was talking to? She looked, for once… sincere.  
“I… what?” She looked at the ground as though thinking of a painful memory.  
“It’s… it’s nothing,” she muttered, with a trace of a bittersweet smile. “But don’t give up… yet.” She trudged off, leaving me in silence. Eventually, I regained my nerve and trekked back to the dorms. I wasn’t sure if she was faking, but both Zaydie and Kate were asleep when I got back. I’d spent longer than I thought in the woods; it was seriously late. I hit the mattress already snoozing.  
I woke rather abruptly. Mainly because Zaydie had lifted my mattress sideways. “What was that for?” I mumbled, splayed out on the floor.  
“You weren’t waking up.”  
“Oh, come on Zaydie, you whispered in her ear, how was that supposed to wake her up?” Kate protested. At least someone was on my side. I stood up slowly and went to shower, since I’d forgotten last night. By the time I was ready to go, the girls were threatening to leave me behind.  
“I’m coming, I’m coming!” I complained, and caught up. The stairs, as usual, were difficult. Every now and then I’d look over at Zaydie and wonder what she’d meant last night. Obviously she wanted me to keep my hope. But why did she suddenly care now? Maybe we really were becoming friends. We finally finished the stairs and I grabbed a quick muffin before going to class.  
“Alright, everyone. As I told you yesterday, today we’ll be doing team resonating. Since this is so difficult, we’ve kept you, for the most part, in the same groups. Any questions?” Nobody raised their hand, so Stein continued. “Let’s go, then.” He showed us all our specific areas that we would be training in.  
“Alright, let’s do this,” Mike grinned. I hadn’t talked to him much lately, but he seemed to be doing great. He transformed and Bill caught him, expertly twirling him around. It looked so cool… Kurtis elbowed me to do the same. I transformed, watching Zaydie and Dunny do the same. Dunny’s weapon form, from what I could see, looked like a staff with a parted tip on each end.  
The first step was easy. All we needed to do was start a resonation with our partners. Using Kurtis’s soul perception, I saw four blue wavelengths, including our own, pop up like bubbles. Since Ida was the unspoken leader, she made the first move, directing her wavelength to join ours. This proved to be relatively simple, though it felt a little strained. It was hard to resonate with a calm soul at the same time as an energetic one. Next we reached out to Bill and Mike, which was even harder. The bubbles popped.  
“Man, that’s more difficult than it looks,” Kurtis muttered.  
“Maybe we should try connecting the more advanced people first?” I suggested. We tried again. Ida looked a little worried, but nevertheless she directed the wavelength to Zaydie and Kate. It popped before it even touched.  
“Damnit,” Zaydie grumbled.  
“Sorry,” Kate sighed, rubbing the back of her head. “It always popped when it got to us last year, too.”  
“It’s fine,” Ida said. “We’ll just try again.”  
“And it’s not going to work, _again_ ,” Zaydie mumbled, but I don’t think anybody other than Kate, Kurtis and I heard her, since nobody did anything. I remembered what I’d wanted to tell Zaydie from the book before. The key isn’t to be like the others. That would actually hinder your progress in some cases. The important thing is to be accepting of one another, and as I’d said during special training before, to trust one another. Ida’s bubble connected to ours once more, and it was slightly easier, probably because I’d remembered those things. I think Kurtis did, too.  
We tried to connect to Kate and Zaydie again. I knew I trusted the- okay, maybe I didn’t quite. I tried to trust them, though. But I think the main problem was that they didn’t trust back. Or at least, one of them didn’t. The bubble popped.  
Kate looked discouraged but willing to try again. Ida looked like she was trying to keep a straight face, one of a leader. She looked like she wanted to try again, but knew it wouldn’t work. I guess she’d been with Zaydie long enough that she knew she couldn’t resonate with her. None of us spoke for a while.  
“One more time,” Ida offered. No matter which way we tried it, the bubble popped. Even with Mike and Bill. I mean, if they connected with us first, it seemed to go along better, but they still didn’t know the others well enough to do this resonance, I guess.  
The morning left and we still hadn’t gotten even three of us to resonate properly, much less all of us. Lunch was brought to us by Marie, and I saw Stein and Sid handing other groups their lunches.  
“So, maybe after lunch we could try playing some games, like those trust exercises you always hear about,” I suggested.  
“What?” Zaydie snapped, head jerking up.  
“Like, um, here. Mike, can you stand up?”  
“Sure,” he replied, getting up. I turned around.  
“Ready?”  
“Yep.” I closed my eyes. I hadn’t done this in a while, but I definitely trusted my brother. I fell back and he caught me, pulling me back up.  
“I see. Seems easy enough,” Kate chimed, optimistic. “Zaydie, let’s try it.” She wouldn’t be moved, though, insisting that she needed to eat her lunch first. Finally we were all done, and instead of going back to work like the other groups, we started playing trust games. Ida was the first to try it, and Dunny seemed to enjoy pulling her up.  
“That’s freaky,” she grinned. “But so fun!”  
“Come on, Zaydie, catch me!” Kate insisted. Finally she stood up. Kate fell back and Zaydie caught her easily. At first nobody wanted to let anybody but their partners catch them. Well, nobody other than Kurtis, Bill, Mike and I. We were all friends to begin with. I worked up the nerve to ask Kate to catch me. I figured I could work my way around the circle, and she was closest to me.  
It was almost scarier, having her catch me. I’d only known her a couple months. But nevertheless, she caught me with ease. “Wow, you’re light,” she commented. “I wonder if you’ll even be able to catch me.”  
“I might be light, but I’m strong,” I claimed. She turned around, looking over her shoulder once, and then fell. I caught her easily. “Zaydie, why don’t you try?”  
“Nah.” She leaned against a tree, looking bored. Across the circle I saw Dunny catching Mike and Ida catching Kurtis. They really did look cute together. I looked back to Zaydie, who seemed to be in her own world.  
“Okay, but if you don’t catch me, I’m going to fall onto the ground,” I told her.  
“That would be your fault.” I frowned. If she didn’t even care, there was definitely no way we’d get this to work. I walked right in front of her. She looked at me blankly. I raised my arms beside me and leaned back. She looked a little startled, but by the time she realized I was serious I’d fallen down.  
“Ow…” I mumbled. That had been a complete fail.  
“You’re an idiot, you know that?”  
“Are you gonna catch me next time?” I asked.  
“No, you should know better than to let yourself fall down.”  
“That’s not the point of this,” I told her, sitting up. “If we’re ever fighting together, and your life is in danger, would you trust me to save you?”  
“Probably not, I’ve seen your skills.”  
“Well do you want me to trust you to save mine?”  
“No, what’ll happen if I can’t? I’ll have let you down.”  
“So why do you trust Kate?” I countered.  
“I’ve known her for a long time.”  
“Well you’ve known Ida since last year at least, right?”  
“That’s not very long.”  
“Agh, you’re impossible!” I yelled. I tried my first approach. “Do you want to see me hurt?”  
“I’d rather not, I guess.” I stood up and lifted my arms again. “I’m not going to catch you.”  
“That’s your choice. I’m leaving the decision in your hands, see? I’m trying to trust you.”  
“You’re pretty dumb for someone who got into EAT.” I closed my eyes and fell back. Ouch. She really meant it when she said she wasn’t catching me. I stood up quickly. I didn’t bother brushing the dirt off of me. By now the others were watching.  
“I’m going to keep getting hurt until you help me,” I told her. I went to fall back again. Amazingly, someone lifted me up. But it wasn’t Zaydie. It was Ida.  
“Nik, stop hurting yourself. It didn’t work the first time, and it won’t work the third, fourth, or fifth.” A part of me was a little mad at Ida. It might not have showed, but I swore I saw Zaydie contemplating actually helping me.  
“Zaydie,” I said, ignoring Ida for the moment. “Why don’t you trust anyone?” Her eyes looked thoughtful. “Other than Kate, isn’t there anybody you trust, at all?”  
“One person,” she muttered.  
“Who?” I prodded. She didn’t respond. Instead, she stopped leaning against the tree and she walked away. I ran after her, asking Ida and the others to stay behind. “Zaydie?” I found her looking out at Death City, in a place eerily similar to where Maka ran when her team resonance had failed.  
“Why did you trust me?” she asked.  
“Because I don’t think you’re all bad. I think that, if Ida hadn’t come in, you really would have caught me.”  
“I wouldn’t have.”  
“I wouldn’t be too sure. There’s got to be some limit to how much you’d allow me to hurt myself.”  
“You’d knock yourself out trying to find it.” I tried to think of a different approach.  
“What if I wasn’t the one hurting me?”  
“Like if you were getting attacked?”  
“Yeah. Like, if we ended up in a battle with some monster, and I couldn’t move or anything, but you could, and you were hidden, would you come help me out?”  
“I don’t know. Maybe.”  
“I have an idea. What if we did one of those group mission things?”  
“Pass,” she muttered. She looked over the edge.  
“Come on, I hear they’re great for building teamwork.”  
“That’s my problem. I don’t want to work as a team. I get by fine with just Kate.”  
“Kate and you are a team,” I pointed out.  
“We’re a partnership.”  
“That’s the same thing!” She sighed in frustration and looked up at me with what could almost pass as hate.  
“Listen, kid, even if I manage to trust you, there’s no way I can trust some guy who spends 20 hours a day laughing!” That was it. I finally got over that little bit of me that was still afraid of her, and I snapped.  
“What do you know about trust? From what I can tell you’ve trusted a single person your whole life! I don’t know what kind of life you led at home, but whatever it is, it’s gone now! So could you please, stop treating everyone like they’re less than you, or don’t deserve to know you!”  
“You don’t _want_ to know me,” she hissed.  
“Yes, Zaydie,” I made my tone more sympathetic than angry. “I do.” She looked at me warily.  
“You’re an idiot,” she said for the second time that day.  
“So be it. I’m a trusting idiot, who has friends that will protect me. What are you?”  
“I’m a monster.”  
“I don’t believe that.”  
“I don’t care what you believe,” she snarled, but she began walking back to the training grounds with me. We never did manage to team resonate that day, nor did Zaydie participate in any of the trust games. However, on the way out of class, before Kurtis started his one-on-one training with Stein, Kate announced to everyone that we were excused from classes the next day for a group mission. I couldn’t help but smile.


	24. Chapter 24

### Kurtis

WHAM! I found myself lying on the floor of Stein's classroom.  
“Whoops. I thought you were ready.”  
“No, we didn't even start yet.” I complained, picking myself up off the ground and rubbing my sore face.  
“Huh. I  
thought your stance was off.” Stein observed.  
“Yeah,” I grumbled. “So what are we working on today?”  
“More footwork and blocks mostly. I'll teach you a few punches if there's time,” he answered.  
“Alright.”  
“Stance,” Stein noted. I took a fighting position. This time I was ready to block the punch he threw at me.  
“A little warning would be nice you know.”  
“Your opponent won't give you a warning before attacking. Why should I?”  
“Because this is just training?”  
“And it's good training to always stay alert,” Stein concluded. He had a point. This training was tough, but it would get me ready to fight on my own a lot faster.  
“I guess you're right,” I admitted. We continued with the lesson longer than yesterday's, giving me plenty of time to learn a basic punch. Apparently the way I was punching wasn't 'proper'. I left Stein's class with a few more injuries than I entered with. Sure, the bruises hurt, but that was just more incentive to block his punches. It wasn't until I finally flopped into bed at night that I realized how sore I was. Going on that mission tomorrow was going to be hell.  
“Kurtis. Wake up. Mission.” I felt Bill prodding me on my ribs. On a bruise no less. “We're leaving now, get up.”  
“Yeah, okay...” I mumbled, still mostly asleep. I forced my eyes open and stared at the wall for a minute before hopefully working up the willpower to get up. I could barely believe that later today we'd be in China. China, of all places. Nik went there for a year, so at least she might be able to act as our guide or something. We just missed Chinese New Years... I think. I couldn't actually remember when it was. I closed my eyes for just a split second....  
“Kurtis!” Bill called, and I jumped awake again.  
“Yeah, yeah. I'm coming,” I grumbled, stretching and sitting up.  
“We're gonna miss our flight. Hurry up,” he urged. I threw on a set of mostly-clean clothes and accepted the bagel Mike held out for me, setting it on my dresser while I began last-second packing. A couple changes of clothes would do, and for once I could wear something casual. My actual outfit felt a little formal now that I've been wearing it for a few months.  
“You guys ready?” I heard someone ask as the door opened downstairs. Sounded like Ida actually. Something about the thought of her seeing where I'd been sleeping bothered me.  
“Coming!” I called down, zipping up my bag. I really hoped I didn't forget anything. Taking a bite of the bagel, I followed Bill and Mike downstairs and out to a minivan parked outside. Ida was waiting outside, standing by the driver's side of a minivan. I guess that meant she was driving us. Nik poked her head out the back and surveyed the building.  
“So this is the boy's dorm...” Nik poked her head out the window. “It's... the same,” she decided, suddenly uninterested. We threw our luggage into the back of the van and I opened the passenger door, only to find Zaydie already seated there, glaring at me.  
“What?” she snapped.  
“Oh, sorry. I thought front seat was open.”  
“Well it's not,” she retorted, putting her attention back to the handheld game she was playing.  
“Are you going to be playing that the whole way to the airport?” I pestered.  
“If there's enough battery,” she grunted.  
“Oh, what's she playing?” Mike asked, suddenly more curious about her game than getting in.  
“Phantom Hourglass,” she answered curtly.  
“Wait, but... I... I know that game,” he stammered. “I thought that they had... different games... here.”  
“They have this in the UA?” Her head snapped up from the game. I noticed it did look a little familiar.  
“Yeah!” Mike grinned, excited now. “Can I watch you play?”  
“Why not? I doubt Princess here is man enough to give up shotgun, anyway.” She unbuckled and hopped out. “Have fun chatting with your _girlfriend_ ,” she whispered in my ear. I stood there for a second, contemplating talking back, but as it was I wasn't sure if Ida had heard the remark. I got in and closed the door, suddenly extremely interested in my seatbelt. I heard Nik grumbling about being in the middle, but otherwise everyone was set.  
“Alright, let's go!” Ida declared, turning the key to ignition. In a short while we were on the highway. I struggled to think of a way to start a conversation with her.  
“Can we have some music?” Nik whined from behind us.   
“Sure,” Zaydie said before Ida could reply, turning up the game's volume.  
“No, not that music!” she protested. “I meant the radio!”  
“Sorry, I don't have one of those. Maybe I'll get it from the next dungeon.”  
“Ha-ha. Ida, can you turn on the radio?”  
“Sure,” she replied from beside me, and turned a dial beside her. Instantly, a pop song came on.  
“Ugh, switch the channel,” Zaydie complained. I pressed a button, and the music changed to some heavy metal.  
“Ow, no!” Kate protested. I suddenly wondered if any of us actually shared tastes in music. I pressed the button again, and this time country came out.  
“Um. No,” I said out loud, pushing it once more. Jingle bells poured in from the speakers now. Dunny and Nik instantly began singing.  
“Sorry, that's a CD,” Ida explained, pushing the button again. Nik immediately grumbled about how she hadn't heard anyone complaining, but after a quick peek back, I was glad. Zaydie looked like she wanted to rip someone's head off. Namely, the girl sitting in front of her.  
Today's weather was being announced, but apparently nobody was interested, because four out of six voices synchronized suddenly. “Next!” I pressed the button.  
Some sort of pop rock came on. It wasn't my first choice, but at least it was better than anything else that had been on. It sounded sort of like Hedley, come to think of it. I didn't hear any complaints from the back, and breathed in relief as I took my finger from the knob. Of course, then Ida pushed the button.  
“Seriously, do any of us agree on any kind of music?!” Kate lashed out. Finally, since nobody else seemed to care about having music, Ida gave Nik a pair of earbuds and told her to use her MP3 or something. I failed to start any sort of talk I'd wanted with Ida, but when we got on the plane I sat beside her, so I figured we could talk during the flight. However, much to my disappointment, on her other side Dunny required almost all of her attention, so that people wouldn't complain about him.  
A few hours in I got my wish, though. As the lights above went out, I whispered as a joke, “Does he even sleep?”  
“Sure,” she smiled back. “Hey, Dunny,” she whispered. “You know what time it is?”  
“What?” he asked. I cringed at the sound, but nobody seemed to notice.  
“It's time to study! Here, I brought your book,” she said, pulling out a pamphlet on tourism in China.  
Dunny took the paper and splayed it on the mini-table in front of him, suddenly staring at it earnestly. “One... two... three,” Ida counted. The moment she said three, Dunny's eyes were shut. A soft snoring sound escaped his mouth.  
“Wow, you're good,” I chuckled.  
“Yeah,” she smiled. Then, when I was about to say something, anything really, she reached for the pillow in the seat pocket and began adjusting her sitting position. Oh well. I figured I should try to get some sleep as well, so grabbed my own pillow and made myself comfy. A few times I thought of whispering something to her, but I couldn't think of anything worthwhile to say. Besides, there was always the ride back. And considering she was part of my team now, I'd be seeing a lot more of her. I smiled to myself and let my mind wander, eventually slipping into a peaceful sleep.  
A small beam of light shone through the windows into my eyes, and I stirred awake. I wondered how long I'd been asleep for. I tried to raise my arms to my eyes to rub the sleepiness out, but I found my left arm was trapped. My heart skipped a beat when I realized Ida had her head resting on my shoulder. I felt my face redden slightly, and I dared not move in case I woke her up. Maybe I'd wait a bit, or let her wake up on her own. Besides, she looked comfortable. I noticed the people in front of us getting served breakfast. Maybe their talking woke me up. I was a fairly light sleeper anyways. She moved the cart up and smiled at me.  
“Breakfast today is pancakes, with your choice of spread and drink,” she said, and I glanced at the serving cart. They had plenty of juices to pick from, along with a bunch of jams for the pancakes.  
“Umm, I'll have a pancake with maple syrup and... cranberry juice,” I decided. I felt Ida stretch and wake up with a big yawn, apparently oblivious to the fact she'd been asleep on my shoulder for the past few hours.  
“Morning...” She blinked sleepily at me. I opened my mouth to reply but the server handed me my order and Ida shook Dunny awake. I ate my meal slowly, wondering why all airline food seemed to taste blander than normal. Before too long, we landed in China and were ready to head to our hotel. We flagged down a taxi and he pulled over, and asked us where to go, I assume. I'm not entirely sure, because I don't speak Chinese. We should've thought this over. Before I could give up however, Nik proudly procured a neatly printed out map, leading to our hotel. Lucky someone planned ahead. Within minutes we were at our hotel.  
“你好,” Nik beamed as we walked into the lobby.  
“Uhh, Nik? Speak in Pinyin, people aren't gonna understand how to sound that out otherwise,” I pointed out.  
“Fine. Nǐ hǎo!”  
“That's better. Now they can understand us.”  
“Isn't that exactly what she just said..?” Zaydie asked, confused.  
“Hello,” the receptionist greeted. Good thing she knew some English. We were quickly escorted to our rooms, where we threw our suitcases down and collapsed in bed from pure exhaustion. It was only lunchtime in China, but apparently a 12 hour flight tends to leave you feeling jetlagged. I swear I fell asleep within a minute of closing my eyes, and didn't even wake up until it was dark out. I still felt groggy, but not enough so to go back to sleep, just enough to lay in bed and wish I were a cat so I was able to sleep 18 hours a day. There was a sudden crash outside and Mike leapt upright in his bed. I heard a door open in the hallway and soon, there was a soft knock on our door. Evidently Bill was also awake, since he was the once to answer. Ida stood in the doorway, a mixture spooked and tired on her face. Nik peeked over her shoulder and immediately scolded us.  
“You slept in your clothes?! Do you know how gross they would be after half a day of travelling?!”  
“Not as gross as I am tired.”  
“Hmph.”  
“Come on,” Kate whispered from behind them as another crash sounded. “If we wait any longer, someone's gonna get hurt!”  
“Psh, they should know to stay away from giant slime monsters,” Zaydie muttered.  
“Not when the slime monsters destroy their house,” Mike countered smoothly.  
“Shouldn't we be helping them or something?” I worriedly suggested.  
“That's exactly what I was saying!!” Kate hissed.  
“Then let's go,” Nik mumbled, still half asleep. We bolted out the door, down the stairs, through the hall and crashed through the front door. The streets were empty. Another crash brought our attention to the left and we saw a gigantic green goo goblin.

### Nik

Nik here. Kurtis, just because it starts with G, doesn't mean that it described the monster perfectly. Picture a puddle of green mud. Now make it shaped like some goopy monster. Now make that monster destroy chunks of houses, because it's just so big. That's what we were facing. Alright Kurtis, back to you.

### Kurtis

“Weapon forms!” Ida commanded. Nik transformed into bow form and I snatched her from the air.  
“What do you think would work best against this thing?” I asked, unsure of which form to use.  
“I'd think the bow, the blades might just swish through him. He looks like a pile of mud.”  
“Gee that makes our job sound easy,” Mike grumbled.  
“Whatever,” Zaydie muttered. “Lets go.” I fired a volley of arrows at the goblin-

### Nik

GOOP MONSTER.

### Kurtis

(This is my section, get out!!!) I fired a volley of arrows at the goop monster, but they had seemingly little effect. The bladed weapons were doing even worse, the wounds seemed to close in behind the blade. Mike seemed to be jammed in the goop, and Bill was desperately trying to free him. The only effective weapon seemed to be Ida's light beams, which left a small hole wherever they landed. Zaydie, unable to fight the monster well by herself, rushed over to us.  
“Split her in half. Now,” she commanded.  
“She'll just get stuck in it though!” I pointed out.  
“I got a plan! But I need her.” She seemed confident, so I complied, splitting my weapon. Zaydie grabbed one half from me and ran up the fire escape stairs of the nearest building. “Eat this!” she yelled, throwing herself down at the slime. She landed right in the slimes mouth, and disappeared inside the maw.  
“Well that happened,” I muttered to myself. I hoped we could free her before she got digested.   
“Ewww,” Nik groaned. Poor Nik, half of her was now inside this slime thing. I took a single swing at the monster, but to no avail. All I managed to do was lodge her into the monster's side. I wrenched her out, now covered in goop. I wouldn't blame her for complaining about this later.   
“What do we do now?” I asked her desperately, but she didn’t respond. She seemed focused on something. Or maybe she was getting woozy from being separated? Nah, she was able to be further apart with no side effects. And she couldn’t have had that half of her digested by now. Could she? I just began to worry about her when I heard a gigantic splat. The goo monster split apart, and Zaydie stood in the middle, wielding Nik triumphantly.  
“Well that was easy,” Bill noted.  
“Yeah, all it took was being eaten alive by a giant goo monster. Soo easy,” Zaydie grumbled. A thick layer of slime covered both her and Nik.  
“Hey, shouldn’t this monster have dropped a soul or something?” Ida wondered aloud.  
“Yeah, you're right. It-” Mike started, but Bill and him were knocked over by a chunk of slime. Two more chunks rose out of the pile and formed into miniature versions of the goo monster.  
“Tell me that's not what I think it is,” Nik sighed.  
“I think it is,” I replied. “At least these ones look a lot smaller.”  
I heard a growl and a squishing noise as Kate leapt at a blob. She tore a chunk off with her mouth, but dropped it onto the ground, apparently disgusted by the taste. That didn't stop her, and she kept tearing at the blob until it had reduced in size drastically. There was a darker green patch inside of it that seemed to be made of another jelly-like material. As she bit into it, the monster looked visibly hurt and thrashed at her, knocking her to the ground. It hurried to gather the chunks Kate had torn off and rebuilt itself. At least we had an idea of what to do now.  
“Kate, are you okay?” Ida asked, concerned.   
“Course she is. She can take a pretty bad beating in that form,” Zaydie assured her.   
“Well lets stop talking and kill these things then!” Bill suggested and took a swipe at the nearest one. Mike went straight through it, leaving no trace behind other than some goo on his blade.  
“Further in,” Zaydie instructed. “Hit the core.” With that, she jumped onto another one and began digging for the centre. The blob let out the most terrible screechy grinding noise.  
“Ow, what is that?!” I shouted, pressing my hands to my ears. I noticed the other meisters doing the same.  
“What is what?” Nik asked.  
“Don't you hear that? It's almost deafening!” Whatever the blobs were trying to do, it must've worked, because in the confusion two of the blobs managed to merge together and were heading for Zaydie. I wanted to chase after them, but all I could focus on was how noisy they were and how much my ears hurt. I slammed my eyes shut, as if that would help in some way dull the noise. It was amazing how disorienting sound could actually be. It was as if all I could focus on was the sheer volume. I became aware of one other noise that was almost as loud as the screeching. It took me a moment to realize it was my own yelling.  
“Kurtis, snap out of it! We've gotta help Zaydie!” Nik interrupted. I forced open my eyes and noticed the bigger slime getting dangerously close to Zaydie. I shook off the confusion, and slowly took my hands from my ears. They weren't helping too much anyways, it was hard to plug your ears while holding a weapon, and the sound didn't seem much worse without plugged ears. I was afraid I might go deaf, but I'd much rather that than have Zaydie eaten by a slime. I charged full speed at the slime, and swung Nik at it as hard as I could. Much to my relief, the screeching noise stopped immediately. I tried to pull her out to take another swing, but she wouldn't budge. She was stuck deep in the slime, and it seemed like she was getting pulled deeper.  
“Ew, Kurtis, it's eating me! Get me out of here!” she cried. In a panic, I tried wrenching her free, but to no avail. The slime pulled her deeper still, and there was no way she was coming back out. Luckily, she was a faster thinker than I was, and transformed back to human. Since Zaydie, who was on the other side of the slime, held her other half, Nik was able to appear safely outside of the slime. However, this left me weaponless, and the slime seemed pretty upset that I'd interrupted its meal. It looked as though it was about to attack me, but was distracted by Nik's footsteps on the other side of it.  
“Hey, Bozo!” she called. “Behind you!” The blob seemed to slow its creeping towards me, but as it didn't have a face I'm not really sure where it was looking. I heard Nik curse as she tried to maneuver around it so I could wield her again, but before she could get free the blob pinned her up against a wall.  
“Crap, Kurtis, grab- Zaydie, my- ahh!” she tried to scream, but I could only hear strange muffled sounds as the mud-like monster began to absorb her. I jumped for her hand, the only limb visible as the monster sandwiched her more into the wall. Without hesitation, she transformed. Somehow, I found my hand touching someone else's, and I realized as I pulled Nik out that Zaydie had grabbed her other hand. At least she was out of there. We split Nik and each took a half.  
“Come on, it's almost dead!”  
“One more blast, Ida!” Bill called, and with a large boom, the goo monster shuddered then split into two.”Kate, finish it!” Ida shouted, and with a growl Kate started tearing at one of the blobs. A dark greenish spot caught my eye, and I drove my weapon straight into it. Instantly, the entire monster turned into a familiar cloud of black smoke and two kishin egg souls floated in front of us. Zaydie was hard at work attacking the other blob, with help from Kate. Tearing at the blob together, they found and destroyed the green core inside. Soon three kishin eggs and a terrible amount of slime was the only evidence of a battle taking place.  
“Well,” I stated. “There's 4 groups and only three souls.”  
“We've got tons already, you guys can have them,” Ida offered.  
“Fine by me,” Zaydie shrugged, snatching a soul and eating it.  
“I... Uh...” Nik started.  
“...Meh.” Mike hesitantly ate the second soul.  
“You sure, Ida?” Nik asked, holding the last one gingerly in her hands.  
“Yep,” she answered. “Dunny and I have been collecting souls for years now. You guys just started.”  
“Well, okay then.” Nik swallowed it and bit her lip, trying not to giggle. I guess kishin eggs felt funny going down your throat.  
“Alright. Let's go back to bed, then,” Ida said with a tired smile.  
“Good idea,” I agreed. I noticed she was the only meister not covered in goo. Even Nik and Zaydie were covered!


	25. Chapter 25

### Nik

I ordered my personal favourite, half because I could actually say it and half because it was just really good.  
“Nik, order me this one,” Mike asked, pointing to a picture.  
“Um. I can only read like, a quarter of that.” I know I spent some time in China before, but puh-lease, people! That does not mean I can suddenly speak and read it fluently! Seriously, characters are totally different from letters. You can’t sound it out unless it’s in pinyin, which they stop using after grade 3.  
“This one,” Kate pointed towards another one. My eye twitched.  
“Yi ge zhe ge, he yi ge zhe ge,” I smiled, blushing for the second time that day. The waitress nodded and left to make the food. I did the same thing for the boys’ food and the other waiter called it back to our original waitress.  
After we ate, we rushed back to the hotel to get our bags. Since we hadn’t really packed much at all, we didn’t actually unpack. It made re-packing so much easier. All I had to do was shove last night’s clothes – shudder – back into the suitcase. Of course, we put it in a garbage bag. I sincerely hoped Death City’s Laundromat was the best in the world, because knowing mystery slime, they would have to be. Plus there was that other shirt from when I faced the vampire. Speaking of vampires…  
“Hey, Zaydie, how fast can you run?”  
“Eh, how should I know?” she muttered, squeezing some toothpaste on the complimentary brush.  
“Don’t they do a fitness test every year?”  
“Guess so.” She began brushing, so I waited for her to finish. I’d already brushed my teeth with Kate.  
“So… how do you do on those?”  
“Okay, I guess.”  
“Well, have you ever tried going as fast as you could?”  
“Nah,” she yawned. “Why are you so interested about how fast I run?”  
“Well on my first mission Kurtis and I were facing this vampire dude, and he could run like, miles in just a minute!” She sat on her bed, raising an eyebrow.  
“And you think I can, too?”  
“Well, it’d be pretty cool if you could,” I suggested, zipping up my suitcase. “Wanna try?”  
“I’m tired. Maybe later,” she muttered, plopping back onto the bed.  
“Uh… our flight’s in a few hours. Is now really the time for a nap?”  
“How the hell do they know when to book our flights, anyway? The whole thing is eerily convenient.”  
“I asked Kid about that, actually. They hold spots for us on every flight until we finish. We don’t want to keep them waiting, so come on.”  
“No,” she grunted through her pillow, having flipped over. “Tell them we aren’t done or something.”  
“Zaydie! That would be lying!” She flipped onto her back.  
“Well, yeah, Sherlock, it would be. What’s the big deal?”  
“I just… I can’t believe you’d lie to Lord Death like that.”  
“What, you’ve never lied to an authority figure?”  
“No, that wouldn’t be right,” I insisted. She pushed herself into a sitting position on the bed.  
“I don’t believe you. Sometime or another you must have lied to your parents or something.”  
“Well, maybe. I’m not sure. It would have been a long time ago.”  
“Okay, authorities aside. When was the last time you lied?”  
“Well, there was that time with my friends a bit before we came to this world. We were walking to the park and I was like, ‘oh man, I got these super-duper psychic powers and now I can finally read my own mind!’”  
“Nik. I meant a lie where it wasn’t cringingly obvious.”  
“Oh. Yeah, um… I’m not really sure.” Her mouth dropped.  
“Maybe you’re cursed… Lie to me.”  
“My hair is purple. Zaydie, it’s not a capability thing if that’s what you mean. I’m just not comfortable lying. It’s wrong.”  
“You poor, poor being.” She patted my arm sympathetically. “Let’s try again. Don’t make it so obvious, though. Tell me some secret middle name or something.”  
“What’s the point? You already know it’s a lie.”  
“You’re right.” She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and thought for a second. “Alright, within one week, I want you to tell me one lie. And then at the end of the week, tell me what it is. Okay?”  
“Zaydie, I really don’t-” She stopped me by placing her hand on my mouth as she stood up. At first I wondered if there was someone in the hall, but her eyes were only on mine. Her gaze was intense.  
“Come on,” she finally grinned. “We’re gonna miss our flight.” She grabbed her bag and ran out, where the others were already waiting. I already knew I wasn’t going to lie to her that week. Or the next, for that matter.  
The flight home wasn’t too boring since they supplied movies. We were all dead-tired when we got back, though, and just went to sleep. We actually got a week off of school because of jetlag.  
“So?” Zaydie pressed on the last day before school began again.  
“What?” I demanded, not done sleeping. After all, I was supposed to be squeezing in every bit of sleep I could get before I began getting homework again. Actually, I’d been getting homework from some other girls in the dorms. That was beside the point, though.  
“What was it?”  
“What was what?” I snapped. In this week I’d been getting pretty close to Kate and Zaydie. Ida had even come over a few times. She’d confessed that she actually thought Kate was a witch because of some rumours that had apparently been going around. Of course, now that she knew the truth, Kate and Zaydie gave her permission to dispel the rumours.  
“The lie, dummy.”  
“What lie?” I asked. I didn’t forget, of course. But I wasn’t about to say I’d forgotten about the lie. It was hard to when suddenly your roommate decided it was time to play ‘Quiz Nik.’  
“Did you ever actually say a lie?” she asked, narrowing her eyes. The glare she gave me was almost making me want to lie right then, and say that of course I lied. But no, I couldn’t.  
“N-no.” I turned and looked at the floor.  
“Don’t worry,” she said, touching my face. I blinked at this symbol of friendship. “We’ll fix you yet.” She left to hang out with Kate. Somehow they’d been fine after two days. I’d been crying half the time, I was so tired.  
My hand went to my face. What was that all about? Zaydie had never shown any sign that she had even half a heart. And now suddenly she was trying to make me feel better? It didn’t make sense.  
I went outside, unable to fall back asleep. I saw a few other meisters and weapons around, which was a bit of a shock until I remembered it was Sunday. Man, I was out of it.  
“Nik!” someone called from behind me. I turned and smiled.  
“Where have you been?” Liz asked. Patty started staring intently at a butterfly nearby. Kid walked straight up to me, and I kid you not, straightened my pants.  
“What, no hello?”  
“How was your mission?” he asked, getting right to the point.  
“Well, we beat the monster… thing… I’m not sure what it was, actually. But we defeated it. I now have two souls,” I beamed. He smiled in approval.  
“That’s wonderful.”  
“Yeah… so… how have you been?” I asked, tuning out Liz’s talking with Patty.  
“Fairly well. I’m hosting a party at the mansion this Saturday. Would you like to come?” Would I? He didn’t even need to ask.  
“Of course,” I blurted. “I mean, um. Yeah. Sure. What time?” He gave me the times and looked off to the side. I looked, but there was nothing there. Instead I noticed that Liz and Patty were just a teensy bit further away. As I looked, they made an obvious movement to look away. At least, Liz did. Patty was poking a stick into the sidewalk.  
The party went by quickly. I couldn’t find Kid, much to my disappointment. I chatted with my other friends, though. We were becoming slowly closer, ever since the mission. Team resonating still always failed, however. I couldn’t figure out why Zaydie had those trust issues.  
The time went by, week by week. Every now and then Zaydie would ask if I’d lied, but I never had. After a while I told her it was probably a lost cause, sort of like her trusting Ida or Dunny seemed to be after a while. She never asked after that. I’d secretly been hoping it would fuel her to try to trust them, but it didn’t work.  
On the bright side, she began taking up running. She never let me watch, though.  
Kurtis and I went around the globe getting souls for me. Each one tasted just as great as the last. Everything was going alright.  
Except for one thing. Sasha. I trained hard, told myself it would pay off, if I could just wait, but as the end of school began to close in on us, I started to really get impatient. After we were dismissed for the summer, I almost couldn’t take it.  
“I can’t take this!” I screamed one day. As soon as June had come around, it had become steaming hot, and we couldn’t even train outside anymore unless we went to the pond that we’d discovered in April, around Bill’s birthday. We’d gone for a swim there for his party.  
“Is your metal hot again?” Zaydie asked, offering her arm as a blade. We’d discovered this trick early on, thank goodness. But there was only so much space that I could cool off with an arm as a blade. I shook my head at Zaydie.  
“I meant Kat. I need to do something. I need to look for her or something. They said they’re looking in the country, but-”  
“Nik,” Kate hushed me. “We’ve done pretty much all we can. We’ve looked around as much as we could while on missions, and we’ve only been taking missions out of the country.”  
“But Kate, I can’t just sit around like this,” I complained.  
“Okay, how about this? Your calendar says that Kurtis and your birthdays are coming up, right?”  
“Well, yeah.”  
“And Ida tells me that Dunny’s birthday is right in between them... My grandparents own a place way up north, like in Canada, where it’s really snowy. Actually, it’s on a mountain. They sometimes went skiing in past years. They only go in the winter, even though there’s snow all year, so how about we ask to go? We can get a kishin egg while we’re there, if we have to convince Death.”  
“Well, I guess it sounds good. We could go for like, the month of August or something.”  
“Yeah, exactly! Okay, I’ll go talk to Death. You tell the boys and Ida, okay?” I nodded, and Zaydie trailed behind me as we set out for the male dorms. About a fifth of the way there, I was moving at a snail’s pace.  
“Can you go any slower?” Zaydie teased. “Come on, are you waiting for night to come or something?”  
“Carry me,” I joked, feeling like a zombie. I didn’t mean for her to take it seriously. Really, I didn’t.  
“Okay, then,” she shrugged. I was about to protest when she flipped me over her shoulder like luggage. A moment later, we were passing buildings as though we were on an electric bike.  
“Whoa, you never told me you could go this fast!” And that was with me on her shoulder, too. It wasn’t too long before we were at the dorms and telling Mike, Bill and Kurtis about our plans. They readily agreed. The heat was making us all dizzy, even inside.  
Ida’s place was a little further, but with Zaydie doing the real work, we got there much faster than I could have ever hoped to go. I almost didn’t want to leave once we were done explaining the plan. They had… air conditioning… and fans…  
“Zaydie, stop!” I screeched suddenly as we stepped out from the elevator.  
“What?”  
“The sunlight,” I said, pointing towards the door. Now that I thought back, I couldn’t remember if her skin had ever actually touched it. I mean, she was still wearing all that black. Even the sweater, though not when we were inside. She was crazy.  
“Oh, the sunlight’s fine. See?” She stuck a hand out and I winced, but she really did seem okay.  
“But… I thought…”  
“That I would turn to dust?” She snickered at the thought. “Nah, it’s just a bit of an itch.”  
“Okay…” I climbed warily onto her back again, preferring this to her shoulder. By the time we got back, Kate was already in the room, using some old homework as a makeshift fan.  
“We’re cleared to go,” she panted. “Our flight’s on the second.” We all started packing, with nothing better to do.  
“This is heaven,” Mike breathed the moment we left the airport. The air was crisp and clear, but best of all, cool. I was having a hard time believing I was wearing a sweater in August.  
“So what’s the mission?” Ida asked, deciding that we would finish our business first, and then have plenty of time for fun later.  
“Oh, there is none. It didn’t get that far. Are you kidding? The moment he found out it was a triple birthday party, the trip was approved. Of course, we don’t get our allowances for this month.”  
“It’s understandable,” Bill said. “So where’s the place?”  
“Right up there,” Kate grinned, pointing up a mountain.  
“Gosh, we’re actually going to use these boots, aren’t we?” I asked.  
“Duh, why else would we bring them?” Zaydie retorted, lightly smacking the back of my head. We all quickly changed into heavier clothing and boots before trekking up the mountain. Well, to the base. What Kate had forgotten to mention was the fact that there was a bus to a nearby ski resort. We all sighed in relief, other than Zaydie, who probably already knew.  
All week long, we spent time skiing, tubing and sledding. Everything was super fun. I forgot about all my troubles every time we went out. After that one week, however, we needed to get some groceries. We were getting sick of canned foods and the cottage just didn’t have fresh foods.  
We all went around looking for what we wanted to eat. I browsed around, searching for the mac ‘n’ cheese. I suddenly saw a sales clerk that looked oddly familiar. Her hair was dyed and cut a bit, but there was no mistaking her face.  
“Kate!” I called, rushing to the other side of the store.  
“Yeah?”  
“Come here, quick! Quick!” I urged her. The others heard and poked out from their respective aisles to see what the fuss was about. When I got back, the girl was gone. But that wouldn’t matter with Kate around. “Right here,” I insisted. “What do you smell?”  
“I smell… it’s weird… I- I know this smell, but… Kat!” she said suddenly, and everyone jumped into action mode. Groceries were suddenly the last things on our mind as we followed Kate out of the store, where we found a hastily stashed uniform.  
My mind went back to Kid suddenly, and all those times he’d told me how much they were searching for Kat, when she was really just a little bit further north, in the neighbouring country of Canada.  
I suddenly wished I’d said goodbye to him.


	26. Chapter 26

### Kurtis

My heart was pounding in my throat. It's not that I'd given up on Kat, but I seriously didn't expect to see her out here in the middle of nowhere. It was supposed to be a simple vacation, where we would just celebrate a few birthdays, hang out and finally get to relax. So much for that. At least now we might -no, we _would_ \- bring Kat back.  
“I can track her wherever she goes,” Kate said, wasting no time to take off.  
“Wow, your sense of smell is that good? Even when you're a human?” Mike commented.  
“No, she left footprints in the snow,” she pointed out.  
“I'll run ahead and catch her before...” Zaydie stopped mid sentence. Kat didn't need to run far; right around the corner of the building there was a large cliff wall. Her footprints led directly into an eerie looking opening. We hurried through the entrance and found ourselves inside what looked to be nothing more than a squatters cave. Squatters wouldn't have all of this stuff, though. For one thing, the walls were flattened and painted to look like an ordinary house. Upon a second glance, the door appeared to have a security system, disabled by the fact that the door was open. The floors, too, were made of fancy tiles.  
“Well this place is homely,” Bill chuckled, taking off his coat and hanging it on a conveniently placed coat rack by the entrance. It was pretty warm, even with the door open.  
“I almost want to keep my boots on, but the carpet looks nice… and slippers are supplied,” Nik mumbled, looking to the rack full of slippers.  
“Are we seriously going to have an argument about what we should wear in an enemy’s base?” Zaydie asked. Nik shrugged and began taking off her footwear.  
“This has got to be the worst rescue ever,” Ida sighed, kicking off her own boots and replacing them with slippers. Once we were all out of our coats and boots and into our slippers, we opened the next door, trying to forget the fact that we’d technically been polite to Sasha. At least they weren’t animal slippers.  
Through the door was a long hallway. After a while of walking we came to a fork. Ida, having taken the lead, motioned Kate to come up.  
“Well, which way did she go?” Ida asked desperately.  
“Left hallway. I can smell blood.” Zaydie stepped forward.  
“How do we know that's Kat though?” Ida challenged. Dunny gazed wonderingly down the right corridor.  
“Zaydie's right, she went through the left hall,” Kate said. Zaydie raised an eyebrow at Ida, who tried to ignore her.  
“Well then, let's-DUNNY COME BACK HERE!!” Ida shouted at Dunny, who took off down the other hallway. She looked desperately at the group for a second. “Go on ahead, I'll get Dunny,” she ordered, and chased after him.  
“Bill and Mike, you go with her. We need to keep our numbers as high as we can,” Zaydie said. “You two, come with us.” We followed behind wordlessly. It wasn't long before we got to another split. This time, it was a direct 90 degree angle to the right. This place was starting to seem like a maze. Worse, Ida, Dunny, Bill and Mike still hadn't got back. We had been walking a bit slower to give them a chance to catch up, but there was still no sign of their group.  
“Well, where now?” I asked, crossing my arms.  
“Straight ahead. It's faint, but I can smell her down there,” Kate answered.  
“What about the others? How will they know which way we went?” I asked. Nik made her arm a blade.  
“I can carve it into the floor.” She scrawled a makeshift arrow into the floor. Hopefully it was obvious enough to tell them where to go. Looking down the hall, it seemed as though there was at least one more right turnoff. This whole place seemed like a giant maze.  
“I’m not sure about this,” Nik said before we went, looking nervously behind us. “What if the others are in trouble?”  
“I think-” Kate began, before a bloodcurdling scream came from the left hall.  
“I think that sounds more important,” Zaydie finished her sentence. “Let's go see who made that noise. We'll turn back and go the other way if we don't find anything.”  
“Sounds good,” I agreed. We ran ahead, down the left hall. I'd seen Zaydie run pretty fast across an entire desert before, but I don't think I'd seen Kate do any speed running in her human form. Admittedly, I was having a hard time keeping up. Nik was having an even harder time still.  
“Need a lift?” Zaydie offered. She was so out of breath that she simply hopped on her back instead of replying. I wished I could have some sort of lift, but I doubted Kate would be very eager to carry me. I didn't want them thinking I was _that_ big of a wimp, anyways. We took off again down the hall, towards the mysterious screaming noise. I was going at full sprint to keep up with them, the only thing keeping me going now was the chance to save Kat. She depended on me, and slowing down was not an option. Pure determination can only get you so far, however, and after a while of running I began lagging behind. At first, just a meter ahead, then two, then three. They passed right by a door, which was very easy to miss in the dark hall. I only managed to see it because of a small crack of light shining through the opening. Looking for any excuse to take a break, I stopped and called out to them, breathing heavily.  
“Guys... door... we should... check...” I panted, but they couldn't hear me. I guess I wasn't loud enough, and by now they were way ahead. There was no catching up to them now. Oh well. I welcomed this small break from running and sat against a wall to catch my breath. I'd wait for them to notice I wasn't with them - that shouldn't take long, right? - and when they got back we would search through the room quickly. I couldn't even hear their footsteps anymore, it was drowned out by my own breathing. My mouth and throat felt dry, and I wished we brought water or something. Not that we'd planned for this or anything. I heard footsteps coming from the room, and figured I'd caught my breath enough. I picked myself up off the floor and opened the door, leaving it wide open to make it obvious where I'd gone. I barely even stepped into the room when I noticed someone familiar browsing a bookshelf.  
“Kat,” I breathed. To my surprise, she turned and smiled at me.  
“Kurtis!” That caught me off guard. I expected her to turn and run, or attack me.  
“I... is... are you okay?” I stepped forward slowly, ready for some sort of ambush.  
“You came... for me?” she asked, her smile growing wider. I could see some confusion in her eyes.  
“Yeah... we all did.”  
“I was beginning to lose hope,” she bit her lip. “Where are the others?” I was fairly suspicious still, this could be a trick. I didn't want her to think I was alone.  
“Not far,” I answered, stepping forward to stand right in front of her. “Are you...” I should have been ready to guard myself, because I suddenly felt a sharp pain on my face as she jabbed my nose with a quick punch. I stepped back, dazed for a moment. I touched my nose, and drew my hand back to see blood on it. At least it didn't feel broken. I didn't let the blood phase me too much, and immediately prepared myself for a fight. She threw a quick punch at my head, but I was ready this time and grabbed her fist. I hesitated fighting back; I didn't want to hurt her or anything. With her other fist, she punched me in the stomach, knocking the wind right out of me. I doubled over, letting go of her arm.  
“Never take your eyes off of your opponent,” I remembered Stein telling me one lesson. I looked up, just in time to see a foot coming right towards my face. Almost reflexively, my arm snapped into a defensive position and I blocked the attack. I grabbed her foot in an attempt to stop her from fighting, and stood back up straight. Maybe it was the mantises in her head, but she wasn't hopping around trying to keep her balance like instinct would tell her to do. Instead, she jerked her leg back with all of her force, catching me off guard again. I lost my footing and fell straight towards her. She slammed her fist into the back of my neck as I fell past, making me see stars. I landed hard on my stomach and lay there for only a second. There was no time to rest. I wiped the blood from my nose and quickly rolled onto my back, hooking a foot behind her knee just as she turned to face me. In one swift motion, I pulled my leg back, causing her to stagger, and got myself into a kneeling position.  
I now had full control of the fight, and I didn't know what to do. She was still regaining her balance, completely unprepared for an attack on my part. If I wanted to, I could probably end the fight right here. Did I want to hurt her though? What was I even fighting for? I just wanted to defend myself until the others noticed I was missing and were here to help. I decided just to subdue her, and hopefully not have to wait too long before they got here. Standing up again, I grabbed her throat and pinned her to the wall. There was no way she could fight back now. I looked into her eyes, and was completely thrown off at what I saw.  
Tears. Running out of her now purple stained eyes were tears. I wasn't sure exactly why she was crying, whether she regretted this whole thing or out of fear of me hurting her or what. Something deep down told me those tears really were Kat's. Maybe they were tears of being scared, lonely and totally helpless. Maybe because it was killing her to fight me. Maybe they were even tears of joy, because she'd lost all hope, and now there was a chance to be saved and having everything back to how it should be. Maybe it was a mix of all of these things at once. Either way, this was the first real glimpse of Kat I'd seen in a very long time. And those tears were probably the first real communication Kat's had with the outside world in a while. I struggled to keep a straight face, and opened my mouth to say something. I was interrupted by a slow clap coming from behind me.  
“It seems we weren't the only ones training. Well done, Kurtis. Well done.” My head whipped around, and there stood Sasha, along with another older looking woman I didn't recognize.  
“Wh... Wha...” I stammered. I had a pretty good idea of what was going on, and it didn't look good for me. I let Kat go and turned to face the duo.  
“Oh, yes. Kurtis, meet my mother,” Sasha grinned. If it weren't for their vivid green eyes, I would have no idea they were related. They looked completely different. Contrasting Sasha's dark black hair, her mother had light brown and much messier hair. Sasha also had a much lighter complexion, and sharper facial features.  
“Oh, hello,” I said simply, wiping more blood off my upper lip. My mind raced in an attempt to stall long enough for the others to get back. They wouldn't be more than a minute or two, right? Surely they noticed I wasn't with them by now.  
“You're not a bad fighter,” Sasha went on. “It's a pity that won't be of any use now.” I took stance, prepared to fight a battle I was sure to lose, when I felt a sharp blow to the back of my head. I fell to my knees, dazed. I should've tried to stall for just a little bit longer...  
“Goodbye, Kurtis,” Sasha said coldly, and with another blow to the back of my head, I saw black.


	27. Chapter 27

### Nik

“Guys, stop,” I said suddenly, looking around. “Where’s Kurtis?” Zaydie swore briefly and we turned around to find him. It wasn’t long before we found a door wide open, the light spilling out into the hall. I hopped off of Zaydie’s back and peered into the doorway, where a short staircase led to some sort of study. Lying at the bottom of the stairs was-  
“Kurtis!!” someone yelled. It was a split second before I realized it was me. I dashed down the stairs, Kate and Zaydie right behind me. As I felt for a pulse, the door slammed.  
“Welcome, welcome,” a girl’s voice said dramatically. I looked up and saw… “Ah, yes. Mother, this is Katelyn, Zaydie and- well, you know Nicole.” My breath quickened.  
“Why didn’t you kill him?” the woman – Sasha’s mother – asked. I assumed she was talking about Kurtis, whose pulse I had successfully located.  
“I…” Sasha didn’t seem to know what to say. “I can kill him if you wish, Mother.” This was a side of Sasha I had never seen. Her mother looked the rest of us over.  
“Don’t bother. It appears your sister was right. You’re soft.” Sasha flinched, as though someone had poked her with a hot iron. “Don’t be offended. You’ve never witnessed death before.” She snapped her fingers and water began streaming in from the top of the stairs. I quickly picked up Kurtis, managing to get him on my back after a few awkward moments.  
Zaydie transformed and Kate caught her, preparing for a fight. I suddenly realized why Kurtis had wanted those extra lessons from Stein. On my own… would I really be able to do anything, at all?  
“Allow me to introduce you to the topic,” Sasha’s mother continued. My heart froze. Kate moved to protect me, knowing I couldn’t. I felt so helpless.  
The water rose to our shins, and felt like melted ice.  
I peered over Kate’s shoulder and watched the woman leap at us. Kate thrust Zaydie forward, but the woman simply bit down on the blade, somehow effectively blocking and immobilizing it. Geez, was I ever going to find an opponent who couldn’t block with their teeth?! The woman jerked her head sideways, and one of Kate’s hands slipped off. Immediately the lady grabbed her arm with one hand and her jaw with the other. I couldn’t watch this. I tried to step forward-  
I couldn’t. I looked down to find purple… roots… purple tree roots connecting my boots to the floor. I looked up and saw Sasha shaking her head. This wasn’t our fight.  
Her mother lifted Kate like a doll, away from Zaydie, who was still in her mouth. I saw Zaydie begin to transform, but she was too late, and Kate went flying to the opposite side of the room, hitting the wall before slumping down onto the desk.  
By this time the water was up to our waists. Zaydie materialized, still in front of me and aimed to tackle the woman. She wasn’t the only one surprised when she hit nothing but water. I looked around for the woman, but she was gone. Zaydie looked around, too, when suddenly she screamed out in pain and I saw.  
In the water, swimming away from a fresh wound on Zaydie’s thigh, was a shark. Sasha’s mother.  
“Zaydie!” I shrieked, but she couldn’t focus on the water. She held the desk in pain.  
Nik,” she managed to choke out. “Keep… keep her safe.” I knew she meant Kate. But that meant she didn’t think she would make it. She had to make it. She couldn’t… she couldn’t die.  
“No!” Sasha still stood emotionless, holding Kat in the water by her side.  
Zaydie screamed again as the shark bit down on her other side. She fell back into the water, and I knew she was doomed. I made my arm a blade and began furiously hacking at the roots on my feet, slicing up my skin in the process. It hurt, and didn’t seem to do anything.  
After a while the water levels sunk at an even faster pace than they’d risen. I fell to my knees, and let Kurtis fall gently to the floor beside me. I didn’t want to look up. I didn’t want to face what had happen. I didn’t want to know that Zaydie wasn’t breathing, that this time it wasn’t because she was a vampire, but because she was-  
I watched my tears hit the floor silently. I heard someone walk up the steps to the door. “I’ll let you clean up the rest of your mess,” the woman told Sasha. The roots finally left my feet, and I crawled across the floor to Zaydie. I didn’t care if Sasha was there. She didn’t want me dead anyway.  
I finally reached her body, cold and still. I couldn’t keep it in any longer, and laid my head down on her shoulder, hoping, praying that I would hear her heart beat again. Her legs had stopped bleeding. Her eyes stared emotionlessly at the ceiling. I sobbed there, on her shoulder, for what seemed like forever.  
Keep her safe, she’d told me. I looked up with a wet face and saw Sasha watching with a bored expression.  
“I hate you,” she muttered. I wanted to punch her. I stood up on shaky legs. I looked her dead in the eyes and saw that she meant what she’d said. I punched. She grabbed my fist.  
“What… what is the point of all this?” I whispered. She chuckled.  
“It’s for freedom,” she smirked. “But personally, I’ll go with revenge, too.”  
“What did I do to you?!” I demanded.  
“You ruined my plans,” she hissed. She looked over to Kate, and then to me. “And now, I’m going to watch you suffer.” She let go of my fist and I changed my arm to a blade, pulling it awkwardly to my throat.  
“I don’t know why you need me alive,” I said, making her turn. She froze when she saw where my blade was. “But if you touch her, I swear, I’ll ruin your plans to the point of no return.”  
“In that case, I’ll make a deal with you,” Sasha replied, keeping her cool. “If you transform and allow me to hold you, I’ll give her a chance. A fairly decent chance, even.” I debated this.  
“Why do you want me to transform? I won’t let you use me to harm my own friends,” I retorted.  
“Don’t worry, I won’t. Witch’s promise.” I wasn’t sure how good that promise was, but I wasn’t in much of a position to debate.  
“And what about Kurtis?”  
“Look around you, Nicole. There’s enough blood on this floor.” She was right, almost the entire floor had a light red tinge, since the water had diluted and spread Zaydie’s blood everywhere.  
“I…” I suddenly realized how Kurtis felt, making a deal with the devil and nothing to gain. “I…”  
“I won’t even hold you for that long,” she pressed. “And if that isn’t enough to convince you, then if you refuse the deal I’ll make sure each and every one of your friends dies slowly.” I wanted this all to be over. I wanted to go back to the days where my biggest worry was what I’d gotten on a math test, or whether or not I’d have time to hang out with my friends on the weekend. When had my life become so royally screwed? I wanted to just sit and cry about a girl whose life was gone because of me. I wanted to cry, because after all the kindness Kate had shown to me, the only thing I’d done for her was get her closest friend killed in a battle that wasn’t meant to happen.  
Just thinking all this almost made me cry again. But crying wouldn’t save the rest of us. It wouldn’t save Kurtis. It wouldn’t help Mike or Bill, wherever they were. Most of all, it wouldn’t help Kat, who was still stuck, a prisoner of her own mind. No, I decided.  
Zaydie had died trying to help someone else. She died trying to rescue a girl who she didn’t even know all that well. She died… a hero. And I couldn’t let her death go to waste.  
“Fine,” I muttered. I transformed and she caught me, splitting me immediately before dropping me to the floor. I hadn’t even had a chance to feel the connection between us.  
“Katherine.” Kat transformed, picking me up. Sasha, meanwhile, walked over to Kurtis.  
“Hmm, well I promised I would give Katelyn a chance, but I never even mentioned this boy by name,” she said, grinning evilly at me. I watched in horror as she slung him onto her broom.  
No.  
We walked out of the room and through the maze of the caves until we came to a fairly large chamber that had obviously been prepared beforehand. I saw Ida, Mike, Dunny and Bill, all in separate cages. Bill wasn’t even conscious. Ida scooted to the edge of her cell when she saw us come in.  
“Nik!”  
“What-”  
“I told you I would make you suffer, and I meant it,” Sasha said, pointing towards three pillars in the centre of the room. As Kat walked closer, I found that they weren’t all pillars. Two of them only reached about half a meter high. Kat placed each half of me on these pedestals, while Sasha held Kurtis up against the larger support.  
No, no, no.  
Kat transformed, and Sasha caught her with one hand, the other arm holding Kurtis to the pillar. I watched the same roots from before begin to bind him in place.  
No!  
The roots lifted me by my handles as though I didn’t already have a good enough view. I felt something about the energy from the roots this time.  
With almost 360 degrees of vision on what was happening, I watched Sasha saunter to the other side of the room. She was enjoying this.  
No! No! No!!!  
I saw Mike, trying to pry his eyes away. He knew what was about to happen and he didn’t want to watch any more than I did. Only, I couldn’t close my eyes. I had no eyes to close.  
I saw Dunny, staring intently at Sasha. If looks could kill, Sasha would be a crisp. I’m pretty sure that was the first time I’d ever seen Dunny… angry.  
I looked to Kurtis, praying that somehow he would wake up, and think of a way out of the mess I’d made. Where had it all gone wrong?  
I think I heard Ida screaming, too.  
“Nicole,” Sasha said calmly. “What’s the number one rule of the DWMA?” Protect your meister. If you have to, with your own life. I couldn’t say that out loud. “Here’s a hint. You’re about to break it.” She pulled the string back, an arrow forming.  
NO!  
I concentrated on the energy I was feeling from the roots, taking it in, until I felt that I could-  
I blinked. Sasha was directly in front of me. Her face went from horror to anger to horror again. The weapon in her hand transformed, and I watched as Kat’s screaming form staggered away from her.  
“Snick!” she shrieked, holding her head as mantis after mantis left her head. I felt something sticky by my hands. I looked down, the slight motion making me extremely dizzy. My hand was covered in blood. I looked back up to Kat, who was finally, after all this time, coming back.  
What could I say to her? After all this time, we were finally here. Did she give up on us? Did she think we weren’t coming? I wanted to hug her after all this time. I wanted to apologize for taking so long, for almost giving up on her as well. I wanted to apologize even for little things like complaining about the heat when she was probably freezing.  
I wanted to say sorry for taking so long. I wanted to hug her and never let go, never let anyone hurt her again.  
“Kat…” I tried to say, but it sounded like a hoarse whisper. My hearing was overloading; too many people were screaming or yelling. I fell onto my arms, my energy fading. I heard something fall behind me, and felt it on my feet. I blinked and tried to look behind me, but everything was slow-motion now. “Keep them… safe…” I managed, before coughing up blood. Was this what Zaydie had felt like in her last moments? “I’m sor-” I coughed more blood and tried again. “Sorry…”  
I fell onto my side and felt a numb sensation from my abdominal area. I blinked and saw someone blurry. They were saying something, but I couldn’t hear them very well. My hearing came and went.  
“…be okay…” they said. Yeah. It’ll all be okay…  
I closed my eyes, turning off the nightmare.


	28. Chapter 28

### Kurtis

 

A falling sensation jolted me awake. I crashed to the floor with a splitting headache, trying desperately to remember what happened. It was hard to focus over the screaming. Wait, screaming? I forced my head up, and my memory flooded back. I got into a fight with Kat, and Sasha interrupted and knocked me out! And now there was Kat, kneeling a few feet in front of me. Why was she kneeling? Was that... no. It couldn't be. Kat was kneeling over Nik's crumpled body.  
I felt my stomach drop as I took in the rest of the scene. The rest of my friends in cages, battered and some not even conscious. Sasha's mother was nowhere to be seen, but Sasha herself stood not far in front of me, a look of pure shock on her face. Reality struck hard suddenly, and my screaming joined the others. Using whatever little strength I had, I crawled forwards towards Kat and Nik, dreading the worst. Kat looked up at me for only a second, a look of pure hopelessness and dread on her tear-stained face. I wasn't sure if this was the real Kat or not, but right now it didn't matter to me. Nik lay motionless in a pool of her own blood.  
“No,” I whispered, and dragged myself forwards. My whole body was sore, covered in bruises and cuts, and my head was throbbing. I got about halfway to Nik. She couldn't be... dead... could she? Sasha, just having snapped out of whatever was bothering her, ran straight for Nik. Sasha. This was all her fault. As she knelt down beside Nik, my sadness turned to pure rage. No, this was more than just rage, I felt murderous. Sasha was going to die for this, and I was going to be the one to do it. Running on pure anger, I rose to my feet, interrupting Sasha just as she reached for Nik's body.  
“You get away from her!!!” I shouted, fists clenched.  
“Don't be an idiot,” Sasha snapped, glaring at me. She almost sounded scared. “I don't want her to die either.” She went back to work, using the mantises as makeshift stitching to close the wound. I sat back down on the floor in defeat, watching her continue her work. I was too weak to stop her anyways. Seemingly out of nowhere, a tremor ruptured through the building, rattling the furnishings in the room and causing Sasha to almost fall over onto Nik. Sasha looked annoyed for a second, before standing up.  
“No problem, I was finished anyways.” Suddenly she fell down again, and I looked up to see Ida preparing to blast her with Dunny. I looked towards the cells, confused, and saw Kat unlocking Mike's cell. Was she on our side again? She threw open the door and with that, everyone had been freed. The rumbling became more intense, and rocks began falling. One fell on Ida's arm, throwing off her aim enough that Sasha regained her balance. Sasha mumbled something, and conjured a glowing purple orb in her hand, smiling to herself wickedly.  
“What... what is that?” Ida asked. Suddenly, Kate crashed through the door and my attention was diverted to her. Sasha, too, glanced at Kate, distracting her for just long enough. Kat sprinted towards her, intent on stopping Sasha.  
“Noooo!” She screamed, and jumped to tackle Sasha. The purple orb Sasha had created collided with Kat and disappeared. Luckily, however, she seemed unaffected.  
“Blast the ceiling, Ida!” Kat ordered.  
“But...” she started, but Kat cut her off.  
“Quick, or she'll just restart the spell!” Ida sighed, hesitating for a moment before launching a huge blast at the ceiling above Kat and Sasha. A barrage of rubble rained down, pinning them both down. The whole building began crumbling. I stared at the pile for a moment. Were they...  
“Come on, Kurtis! We need to get out of here before we're all crushed!” Kate commanded. Mike had picked up Bill and was already leaving through the doorway.  
“But Kat!” I protested.  
“...Is coming too. Now let's go,” Ida said as she wrenched Kat's arm free from the wreckage. Luckily she wasn't buried very deeply and none of the larger pieces had landed on her. Kate had run to the centre of the room and collected Nik, carrying her out of the room carefully. I was the last one to leave, following Ida out the door. She was supporting Kat, who was completely silent and had an eerily distant expression on her face. I smiled to myself when I heard Sasha screaming, doomed to be buried alive or crushed inside the collapsing building. It was a shame we couldn't collect her soul, but at this point getting out with Kat was all that really mattered to me. Kate led the way back through the tortuous caves. The trek back felt like it would never end. Were the hallways always this long? Every now and then some stone would fall from above, rushing us further, but luckily nobody was hurt. After what felt like an eternity, we reached the mouth of the cave. As I stumbled out, I did a quick role call in my head. I was here, of course. Nik was being carried out by Kate. Ida and Dunny? Helping walk Kat out. Mike was carrying Bill out. That only left Zaydie. I hadn't actually seen her since I separated from the group and fought Kat. I was about to ask where she was, but that was answered for me.  
Zaydie lay face up in the snow just outside the cave. Her skin looked even whiter than usual, if that was even possible, and there were 2 bloodstained rags tied around her thighs.  
“What happened?” Ida gasped, letting go of Kat, who staggered a step forward before falling into the snow.  
“Kat..?” I asked. We all stared worriedly at her for a moment before the opening behind us sealed itself with rubble. We were lucky to have made it out at all.  
“I'll carry Kat,” Ida offered, and Dunny transformed to human to free her hands.  
“Dunny, can you carry Nik for me?” Kate asked, handing Nik over to him.  
“Nik-alo...” he muttered, carefully holding Nik. He was stronger than he appeared. I guess he would be, seeing the way he jumps up the stairs at Shibusen. Nik seemed to be in a lot better condition than before, the mantises had completely sealed the wound and she still had life in her face. It was almost scary how good of a job Sasha did. Kate picked up Zaydie and we started heading back to our cabin, which was luckily not far from the cave. I wished it was closer though, we all forgot our coats inside the cave and it was freezing up on the mountain. Since I was walking right behind Kate, I got to have a good look at Zaydie. Her face looked completely lifeless, and I didn't even see breathing. Did vampires need to breathe? I hoped not. There was also a little bit of blood around her lips, and I couldn't be sure it was hers. I also noticed Kate had a rag tied around her left arm. I decided not to ask.  
We finally got back to the cabin we'd been staying at, and the unconscious people were placed into beds while I grabbed a glass of water for my headache. Mike had apparently decided to join the unconscious people and immediately went to bed. The rest of us gathered in Kate's room, where Kat was resting. She was unconscious, mumbling something in her deep sleep. She jerked to her side suddenly, a pained expression across her face.  
“Think she's alright? She's been through hell,” Ida said worriedly.  
“Yeah. Plus there was that weird orb,” I added, sipping on some water.  
“I wonder what it did, Kat seemed worried about it,” Ida noted.  
“It's... it's erasing her memories,” Kate whispered. I almost choked, pretending to gasp in a vain effort to hide the fact that I was wiping the water off my chin.  
“Well can't we stop it?” I asked, as Dunny walked into the room.  
“No, but when it's done we can try to undo it,” Kate answered.  
“How do you know all of this, anyways?” Ida gave Kate a look of both suspicion and curiosity. Kate looked at the ground for a few seconds, and sighed deeply, looking back up at us. “Please, please, please don't tell, but,” she paused to take a deep breath, “I'm a witch.” Again I almost choked on my water. Ida stared at her, completely stunned, before standing up.  
“Okay. Okay. I- I'm... I just... I need some air. I need to... calm down or something,” Ida stuttered, swallowing dry air. She left the room, and after a few moments of hesitation, Dunny rushed after her. I felt like she was overreacting, but that wasn't my business.  
“So, that magic spell? How exactly does it work?” I asked in an attempt to change the subject.  
“Well,” she began. “Imagine memories are like burning candles. Each time a new memory is created, a candle is added and lit.”  
“Okay.”  
“Now basically, what the spell did was extinguish every single candle. Well... it's still extinguishing them right now.”  
“Poor Kat...” I muttered, glancing at her. She shifted slightly in her sleep. “And we're powerless to stop it?”  
“There might be some way, but I never learned about it. The most I can do is help her to get some back. We'd be relighting her candles, in a way.”  
“How would we do that?”  
“Well, the memories are still there somewhere. She just can't access them. However, all of us have 'candles' too, and we could use those flames to relight hers.”  
“Sort of like reminding her of something she forgot?”  
“Sort of. Only, it's more complicated than that. Any memory that you share with her you could connect to hers, and her mind would realize she's experienced it.”  
“Makes sense,” I shrugged.  
“The problem is that one person usually isn't enough. Since a memory is a really complicated thing, it takes two or more people most of the time. Imagine the flame you tried to light another candle with wasn't strong enough, so you needed another candle at the same time.”  
“So we couldn't get Kat to remember anything she experienced by herself, or with only one person?”  
“Precisely,” Kate nodded. “By the way Ida, you can come in.” The door creaked open slowly. “Sorry, I didn't want to interrupt,” Ida apologized. “But while I'm glad we can help Kat with her memory, I need to bring something up.”  
“Hm?”  
“When we get back, they're going to want the whole story of what happened to us. How can we explain that Sasha cast a memory spell on her if nobody but a witch would know?” Ida questioned.  
“Oh, I already thought of that,” Kate answered. “Kat can explain it for us.”  
“But how will Kat remember that?” I piped in.  
“She won't. But she's been through a huge trauma, which I heard can cause memory loss,” she paused for a moment. “Just... please, leave the curse out when you tell your stories. I can't let this get out. It would ruin me,” Kate pleaded. “And Kim and Angela are exceptions, I've only been here for two years.”  
“Kate, it's fine,” I interrupted her rambling.  
“Yeah,” Ida agreed. “We won't tell.”  
“Thanks, it... it means a lot to me,” Kate smiled, biting her lip. “Um, but before we do anything, I need Ida's help.”  
“Oh?”  
“Well, Zaydie, she's low on blood, and we never finished shopping anyway, so could you come hunting with me for dinner?” Kate asked.  
“Low... on blood?” Ida said slowly. “Shouldn't we bring her to a hospital? What am I saying, shouldn't _all_ the unconscious people go to a hospital?!”  
“Nik and Bill probably should, but Kat's just resting and Zaydie... really can't go to the hospital... not without blood at least”  
“But why?” Ida pressed.  
“Cause she's a vampire!” I blurted. They both stared at me.  
“Don't be silly, there's no such thing.” Ida refused to believe me.  
“You believed Kate was a werewolf pretty fast...” I reasoned. Ida glanced at Kate, who nodded slowly.  
“Zaydie's a what?!” Ida stood up again.  
“We _are_ accepting donations.” I wasn't sure if Kate was joking or not.  
“I've gone mad.” Ida fell back into her seat, head in hands.  
“...Does this mean we're not getting dinner?” I asked, suddenly noticing how hungry I was. Turns out they were still going hunting, and I decided now was the perfect time to take a nap. On the couch, of course, so that I'd be woken up when they got back. I must have dozed off quickly, because it seemed like only minutes before they returned. Ida offered to prepare the meal while Kate went to look after Zaydie. I sat up rubbing my eyes, noticing every bruise and bump on my body. Kate removed the bandage on her wrist and started feeding her again. After a minute of drinking, Zaydie's eyes opened weakly, but she stayed quiet. Kate continued feeding her, until I began to worry about Kate's own blood levels.  
“Um, Kate, I don't think you should...”  
“Sorry, you're right,” Kate agreed, pulling away from Zaydie, who closed her eyes to go back to sleep. “So let's go over this one more time. What happened in the caves?”  
“I woke up, hell broke loose and Kate is not a witch,” I joked. She gave me a disapproving look. “Sorry. Sasha got pinned and we all got out.”  
“Thanks. I know this might be a lot to ask, but please don't tell Bill, Nik, Mike... or even Kat.”  
“Don't worry, I won't tell a soul.” Kate smiled at this, and got up to aid Ida in the kitchen. We ate dinner mostly in silence, and I offered to tell DWMA that we were coming back early. I contacted them through the mirror, and they offered to pick up the injured people for transport back to the academy. Luckily, Kate just so happened to carry around a set of blue contacts with her, which worked perfectly to disguise Zaydie's eyes. I looked suspiciously at her, and she told me it was from a 'Moon Time' kit. I'm pretty sure that rose more questions than answers, but I kept them to myself.  
The next morning, those of us that weren't hurt took the next flight back to Nevada. Those who were injured had left the night before in an ambulance. The paramedics had said everyone was going to be fine, and Nik was in a surprisingly stable condition despite the severity of her wound. I wondered what the paramedics would think, how an almost fatal wound had been so expertly treated, out in the middle of nowhere.  
My thoughts didn’t ponder it for long. “Don't mention the orb,” I urged myself again and again as the plane took off. “Pretend you don't even know why Kat's missing her memories.” I hoped I could keep up the charade during the questioning we would get when we returned.  
My mind began to drift, and I realized… we’d done it. It hadn’t hit me – really hit me – until now, but we had actually rescued Kat, for real this time.  
I smiled and leaned back into my chair. Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad after all.


	29. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So don't read this unless you wanna read the sequel. Which isn't done yet. But we're working on it.

“Alright, Ida, you’re up next. Describe with as much clarity as you can what happened in the caves.” She took a deep breath.  
“Alright, well, once we got there we took off our coats. It was surprisingly warm. We put on slippers instead of our boots.”  
“You had slippers with you?”  
“No, they were supplied. We couldn’t find anything wrong with them, so we put them on. We walked down the only hall there was for a while, I’m not sure how long. Nobody had watches on them, since Kurtis lost his in a snowbank the week before.”  
“Mhm,” the man mumbled, looking at a clipboard with the details of the previous stories. So far they matched.  
“We came to a fork, left or right. We were about to go left when Dunny ran right. I chased after him, and soon I heard Bill and Mike running behind me.” The man began scribbling, even though it was being recorded. They only needed main details on the paper, and going through the recordings could sometimes take too long.  
“Continue,” he said, gruffly.  
“I’m not sure how long we ran. Dunny was going really fast. When we finally caught up, he was… he was unconscious. I wasn’t sure why. Nobody was around. I told Bill to get his weapon form ready, and I started to wake up Dunny. He’s a pretty light sleeper, most times. I was just getting him awake when I heard Mike fall to the ground with a clatter. Mike is Bill’s weapon-“  
“I am aware,” he interrupted. “Go on.”  
“Bill had been knocked out or something, and Mike fell to the floor. I turned when I heard it, prepared to fight, but…” She paused for a moment, scarcely believing the words she was about to say.  
“It was Nik.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hurray! It's finally all posted! Kurtis chapters were (mostly) written by my dear friend DLLrul3rz (not on the site yet, but that's his usual username so I'll assume if he ever joins that it's what it'll be).


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